Systems and methods for creating, modifying, interacting with and playing musical compositions

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for creating, modifying, interacting with and playing music are provided, particularly systems and methods employing a top-down process, where the user is provided with a musical composition that may be modified and interacted with and played and/or stored (for later play). The system preferably is provided in a handheld form factor, and a graphical display is provided to display status information, graphical representations of musical lanes or components which preferably vary in shape as musical parameters and the like are changed for particular instruments or musical components such as a microphone input or audio samples. An interactive auto-composition process preferably is utilized that employs musical rules and preferably a pseudo random number generator, which may also incorporate randomness introduced by timing of user input or the like, the user may then quickly begin creating desirable music in accordance with one or a variety of musical styles, with the user modifying the auto-composed (or previously created) musical composition, either for a real time performance and/or for storing and subsequent playback. The graphic information preferably is customizable by a user, such as by way of a companion software program, which preferably runs on a PC and is coupled to the system via an interface such as a USB port. A modified MIDI representation of music is employed, preferably, for example, in which musical rule information is embedded in MIDI pitch data, and in which sound samples may be synchronized with MIDI events in a desirable and more optimum manner. The system architecture preferably includes a microprocessor for controlling the overall system operation. A synthesizer/DSP preferably is provided in order to generate audio streams. Non-volatile memory preferably is provided for storing sound banks. Preferably removable non-volatile storage/memory is provided to store configuration files, song lists and samples, and optionally sound bank optimization or sound bank data. A codec preferably is provided for receiving microphone input and for providing audio output. A radio tuner preferably is provided so that output from the radio tuner may be mixed, for example, with auto-composed songs created by the system, which preferably includes a virtual radio mode of operation.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates to systems and methods forcreating, modifying, interacting with and playing music, and moreparticularly to systems and methods employing a top-down and interactiveauto-composition process, where the systems/methods provide the userwith a musical composition that may be modified and interacted with andplayed and/or stored (for later play) in order to create music that isdesired by the particular user.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] A large number of distinct musical styles have emerged over theyears, as have systems and technologies for creating, storing, andplaying back music in accordance with such styles. Music creation,particularly of any quality, typically has been limited to persons whohave musical training or who have expended the time and energy requiredto learn and play one or more instruments. Systems for creating andstoring quality musical compositions have tended towards technologiesthat utilize significant computer processing and/or data storage. Morerecent examples of such technologies include compact disc (CD) audioplayers and players of compressed files (for instance as per theMPEG-level 3 standard), etc. Finally, there exist devices incorporatinga tuner, which permit reception of radio broadcasts via electromagneticwaves, such as FM or AM radio receivers.

[0003] Electronics and computer-related technologies have beenincreasingly applied to musical instruments over the years. Musicalsynthesizers and other instruments of increasing complexity and musicalsophistication and quality have been developed, a “language” forconversation between such instruments has been created, which is knownas the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) standard. WhileMIDI-compatible instruments and computer technologies have had a greatimpact on the ability to create and playback or store music, suchsystems still tend to require substantial musical training orexperience, and tend to be complex and expensive.

[0004] Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to providesystems and methods for creating, modifying, interacting with and/orplaying music employing a top-down process, where the systems/methodsprovide the user with a musical composition that may be modified andinteracted with and played and/or stored (for later play) in order tocreate music that is desired by the particular user.

[0005] It is another object of the present invention to provide systemsand methods for creating, modifying, interacting with and/or playingmusic that enables a user to quickly begin creating desirable music inaccordance with one or a variety of musical styles, with the usermodifying an auto-composed or previously created musical composition,either for a real time performance and/or for storing and subsequentplayback.

[0006] It is another object of the present invention to provide systemsand methods for creating, modifying, interacting with and/or playingmusic in which a graphical interface is provided to facilitate use ofthe system and increase user enjoyment of the system by having graphicinformation presented in a manner that corresponds with the music beingheard or aspects of the music that are being modified or the like; italso is an object of the present invention to make such graphicinformation customizable by a user.

[0007] It is another object of the present invention to provide systemsand methods for creating, modifying, interacting with and/or playingmusic in which a graphical interface is provided that presents arepresentation of a plurality of musical lanes, below each of which isrepresented a tunnel, in which a user may modify musical parameters,samples or other attributes of the musical composition, with suchmodifications preferably being accompanied by a change in a visualeffect.

[0008] It is another object of the present invention to provide systemsand methods for creating, modifying, interacting with and/or playingmusic in which music may be represented in a form to be readily modifiedor used in an auto-composition algorithm or the like, and which presentsreduced processing and/or storage requirements as compared to certainconventional audio storage techniques.

[0009] It is another object of the present invention to provide systemsand methods for creating, modifying, interacting with and/or playingmusic in which music may be automatically composed in a variety ofdistinct musical styles, where a user may interact with auto-composedmusic to create new music of the particular musical style, where thesystem controls which parameters may be modified by the user, and therange in which such parameters may be changed by the user, consistentwith the particular musical style.

[0010] It is another object of the present invention to provide systemsand methods for creating, modifying, interacting with and/or playingmusic based on efficient song structures and ways to represent songs,which may incorporate or utilize pseudo-random/random events in thecreation of musical compositions based on such song structures and waysto represent songs.

[0011] It is another object of the present invention to provide systemsand methods for creating, modifying, interacting with and/or playingmusic in which songs may be efficiently created, stored and/processed;preferably songs are represented in a form such that a relatively smallamount of data storage is required to store the song, and thus songs maybe stored using relatively little data storage capacity or a largenumber of songs may be stored in a given data storage capacity, andsongs may be transmitted such as via the Internet using relativelylittle data transmission bandwidth.

[0012] It is another object of the present invention to provide systemsand methods for creating, modifying, interacting with and/or playingmusic in which a modified MIDI representation of music is employed,preferably, for example, in which musical rule information is embeddedin MIDI pitch data, musical rules are applied in a manner that utilizerelative rhythmic density and relative mobility of note pitch, and inwhich sound samples may be synchronized with MIDI events in a desirableand more optimum manner.

[0013] It is another object of the present invention to provide systemsand methods for creating, modifying, interacting with and/or playingmusic in which a hardware/software system preferably includes a radiotuner so that output from the radio tuner may be mixed, for example,with auto-composed songs created by the system, which preferablyincludes a virtual radio mode of operation; it also is an object of thepresent invention to provide hardware that utilizes nonvolatile storagemedia to store songs, song lists and configuration information, andhardware that facilitates the storing and sharing of songs and songlists and the updating of sound banks and the like that are used tocreate musical compositions.

[0014] It is another object of the present invention to provide systemsand methods for creating, modifying, interacting with and/or playingmusic that works in conjunction with a companion PC software programthat enables users to utilize the resources of a companion PC and/or toeasily update and/or share Play lists, components of songs, songs,samples, etc.

[0015] It is another object of the present invention to provide systemsand methods for creating, modifying, interacting with and/or playingmusic in which songs may be generated, exchanged and disseminated,preferably or potentially on a royalty free basis.

[0016] Finally, it is an object of the present invention to providesystems and methods for creating, modifying, interacting with and/orplaying music that may be adapted to a variety of applications, systemsand processes in which such music creation may be utilized.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0017] The present invention addresses such problems and limitations andprovides systems and methods that may achieve such objects by providinghardware, software, musical composition algorithms and a user interfaceand the like (as hereinafter described in detail) in which users mayreadily create, modify, interact with and play music. In a preferredembodiment, the system is provided in a handheld form factor, much likea video or electronic game. A graphical display is provided to displaystatus information, graphical representations of musical lanes orcomponents, which preferably vary in shape, color or other visualattribute as musical parameters and the like are changed for particularinstruments or musical components such as a microphone input, samples,etc. The system preferably operates in a variety of modes such thatusers may create, modify, interact with and play music of a desiredstyle, including an electronic DJ (“e-DJ”) mode, a virtual radio mode, asong/song list playback mode, sample create/playback mode and a systemmode, all of which will be described in greater detail hereinafter.

[0018] Preferred embodiments employ a top-down process, where the systemprovides the user with in effect a complete musical composition,basically a song, that may be modified and interacted with and playedand/or stored (for later play) in order to create music that is desiredby the particular user. Utilizing an auto-composition process employingmusical rules and preferably a pseudo random number generator, which mayalso incorporate randomness introduced by timing of user input or thelike, the user may then quickly begin creating desirable music inaccordance with one or a variety of musical styles, with the usermodifying the auto-composed (or previously created) musical composition,either for a real time performance and/or for storing and subsequentplayback.

[0019] A graphical interface preferably is provided to facilitate use ofthe system and increase user enjoyment of the system by having graphicinformation presented in a manner that corresponds with the music beingheard or aspects of the music that are being modified or the like. AnLCD display preferably is used to provide the graphical user interface,although an external video monitor or other display may be used as anaddition or an alternative. In preferred embodiments, such graphicinformation is customizable by a user, such as by way of a companionsoftware program, which preferably runs on a PC and is coupled to thesystem via an interface such as a USB port. For example, the companionsoftware program may provide templates or sample graphics that the usermay select and/or modify to customize the graphics displayed on thedisplay, which may be selected and/or modified to suit the particularuser's preferences or may be selected to correspond in some manner tothe style of music being played. In one embodiment, the companionsoftware program provides one or more templates or sample graphics sets,wherein the particular template(s) or sample graphic set(s) correspondto a particular style of music. With such embodiments, the graphics maybe customized to more closely correspond to the particular style ofmusic being created or played and/or to the personal preferences of theuser.

[0020] The graphical interface preferably presents, in at least one modeof operation, a visual representation of a plurality of musical lanes orpaths corresponding to components (such as particular instruments,samples or microphone input, etc.). In addition to allowing the user tovisualize the various components of the musical composition, throughuser input (such as through a joystick movement) the user may go into aparticular lane, which preferably is represented visually by arepresentation of a tunnel. When inside of a particular tunnel, a usermay modify musical parameters, samples or other attributes of themusical composition, with such modifications preferably beingaccompanied by a change in a visual effect that accompany the tunnel.

[0021] In accordance with preferred embodiments, music may beautomatically composed in a variety of distinct musical styles. The userpreferably is presented with a variety of pre-set musical styles, whichthe user may select. As a particular example, in e-DJ mode, the user mayselect a particular style from a collection of styles (as will beexplained hereinafter, styles may be arranged as “style mixes” andwithin a particular style mix one or more particular styles, andoptionally substyles or “microstyles.” After selection of a particularstyle or substyle, with a preferably single button push (e.g., play) thesystem begins automatically composing music in accordance with theparticular selected style or substyle. Thereafter, the user may interactwith the auto-composed music of the selected style/substyle to modifyparameters of the particular music (such as via entering a tunnel for aparticular component of the music), and via such modifications createnew music of the particular musical style/substyle. In order tofacilitate the creation of music of a desirable quality consistent withthe selected style/substyle, the system preferably controls whichparameters may be modified by the user, and the range over which suchparameters may be changed by the user, consistent with the particularmusical style/substyle. The system preferably accomplishes this viamusic that may be represented in a form to be readily modified or usedin an auto-composition algorithm or the like. The musical datarepresentation, and accompanying rules for processing the musical data,enable music to be auto-composed and interacted with in a manner thatpresents reduced processing and/or storage requirements as compared tocertain conventional audio storage techniques (such as CD audio, MP3files, WAV files, etc.).

[0022] In accordance with certain embodiments, the system operates basedon efficient song structures and ways to represent songs, which mayincorporate or utilize pseudo-random/random events in the creation ofmusical compositions based on such song structures and ways to representsongs. Songs may be efficiently created, stored and/processed, andpreferably songs are represented in a form such that a relatively smallamount of data storage is required to store the song. Songs may bestored using relatively little data storage capacity or a large numberof songs may be stored in a given data storage capacity, and songs maybe transmitted such as via the Internet using relatively little datatransmission bandwidth. In preferred embodiments, a modified MIDIrepresentation of music is employed, preferably, for example, in whichmusical rule information is embedded in MIDI pitch data, and in whichsound samples may be synchronized with MIDI events in a desirable andmore optimum manner.

[0023] The system architecture of preferred embodiments includes amicroprocessor or microcontroller for controlling the overall systemoperation. A synthesizer/DSP is provided in certain embodiments in orderto generate audio streams (music and audio samples, etc.). Nonvolatilememory preferably is provided for storing sound banks. Preferablyremovable nonvolatile storage/memory preferably is provided to storeconfiguration files, song lists and samples, and in certain embodimentssound bank optimization or sound bank data. A codec preferably isprovided for receiving microphone input and for providing audio output.A radio tuner preferably is provided so that output from the radio tunermay be mixed, for example, with auto-composed songs created by thesystem, which preferably includes a virtual radio mode of operation. Thesystem also preferably includes hardware and associated software thatfacilitates the storing and sharing of songs and song lists and theupdating of sound banks and the like that are used to create musicalcompositions.

[0024] In alternative embodiments, the hardware, software, musical datastructures and/or user interface attributes are adapted to, and employedin, a variety of applications, systems and processes in which such musiccreation may be utilized.

[0025] Such aspects of the present invention will be understood based onthe detailed description to follow hereinafter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0026] The above objects and other advantages of the present inventionwill become more apparent by describing in detail the preferredembodiments of the present invention with reference to the attacheddrawings in which:

[0027]FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary preferred embodiment of a “Player”in accordance with the present invention;

[0028] FIGS. 2-3 illustrate exemplary preferred function and mode keysin accordance with the present invention;

[0029] FIGS. 4-13 illustrate exemplary preferred screens of thegraphical user interface in accordance with the present invention;

[0030]FIG. 14 is a table illustrating exemplary configuration parametersused in accordance with certain preferred embodiments of the presentinvention;

[0031]FIG. 15 illustrates the song structure used in certain preferredembodiments of the present invention;

[0032]FIG. 16 illustrates an exemplary preferred musical generation flowutilized in certain preferred embodiments of the present invention;

[0033]FIG. 17 is a table illustrating exemplary virtualnotes/controllers utilized in certain preferred embodiments of thepresent invention;

[0034]FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating Tessitura principles utilized inaccordance with certain embodiments of the present invention;

[0035]FIG. 19 illustrates principles of encoding musical key changespreferably as offsets, which is utilized in accordance with preferredembodiments of the present invention;

[0036]FIG. 20 illustrates a mode application musical rule thatpreferably is part of the overall process in accordance with preferredembodiments of the present invention;

[0037]FIG. 21 illustrates an exemplary preferred virtual pattern to realpattern flow utilized in preferred embodiments of the present invention;

[0038]FIG. 22 illustrates principles of relative rhythmic densityutilized in accordance with certain embodiments of the presentinvention;

[0039]FIG. 23 illustrates principles of the relative mobility of notepitch utilized in accordance with certain embodiments of the presentinvention;

[0040]FIG. 24 illustrates a pattern structure creation example inaccordance with certain embodiments of the present invention;

[0041]FIG. 25 illustrates a block structure creation example inaccordance with certain embodiments of the present invention;

[0042] FIGS. 26-27 illustrate Pseudo-Random Number generation examplesutilized in certain preferred embodiments of the present invention;

[0043]FIG. 28 illustrates attributes of simple data structures utilizedin accordance with certain preferred embodiments of the presentinvention;

[0044]FIG. 29 illustrates an exemplary simple data structure flow inaccordance with certain preferred embodiments of the present invention;

[0045]FIG. 30 illustrates attributes of complex data structures utilizedin accordance with certain preferred embodiments of the presentinvention;

[0046]FIG. 31 illustrates an exemplary complex data structure flow inaccordance with certain preferred embodiments of the present invention;

[0047] FIGS. 32-34 illustrate exemplary hardware configurations ofcertain preferred embodiments of the player and a docking station inaccordance with the present invention;

[0048]FIG. 35 illustrates an exemplary address map for themicroprocessor utilized in accordance with certain preferred embodimentsof the present invention;

[0049]FIG. 36 illustrates an exemplary address map for thesynthesizer/DSP utilized in accordance with certain preferredembodiments of the present invention;

[0050] FIGS. 37-38 illustrate the use of a DSP bootstrap/addressingtechnique utilized in accordance with certain preferred embodiments ofthe present invention;

[0051]FIG. 39 illustrates a simplified logical arrangement of MIDI andaudio streams in the music generation process for purposes ofunderstanding preferred embodiments of the present invention;

[0052]FIG. 40 illustrates a simplified MIDI and audio stream timelinefor purposes of understanding preferred embodiments of the presentinvention; and

[0053] FIGS. 41-42 illustrate the use of Non-Registered Parameter Numberfor purposes of synchronizing MIDA events and audio samples inaccordance with certain preferred embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0054] The present invention will be described in greater detail withreference to certain preferred and certain other embodiments, which mayserve to further the understanding of preferred embodiments of thepresent invention. As described elsewhere herein, various refinementsand substitutions of the various elements of the various embodiments arepossible based on the principles and teachings herein.

[0055] In accordance with the present invention, music may be created(including by auto-composition), interacted with, played and implementedin a variety of novel ways as will be hereinafter described via numerousexemplary preferred and alternative embodiments. Included in suchembodiments are what may be considered as top-down approaches to musicalcreation. Top-down as used herein generally means that a complete songstructure for quality music is created for the end user as a startingpoint. This enables the user to immediately be in position to createquality music, with the user then having the ability to alter, andthereby create new music, based on the starting point provided by thesystem. Where a particular user takes the music creation process is upto them. More conventional musical creation processes involve abottom-up approach, wherein the rudiments of each instrument and musicalStyle are learned, and then individual notes are put together, etc. Thisconventional approach generally has the side-effect of limiting themusical creation to a small group of trained people, and has, in effect,barred the wider population from experiencing the creative process withmusic.

[0056] A useful analogy for purposes of understanding embodiments of thepresent invention is that of building a house. In the conventional meansof house-building, the user is given a bunch of bricks, nails, wood, andpaint. If you want a house, you need to either learn all the intricaciesof how to work with each of these materials, as well as electricalwiring, plumbing, engineering, etc., or you need to find people who aretrained in these areas. Similarly, in musical creation, if you want asong (that is pleasing), you need to learn all about various types ofmusical instruments (and each of their unique specialties orconstraints), as well as a decent amount of music theory, and acquire afamiliarity with specific techniques and characteristics in a givenStyle of music (such as techno, jazz, hip-hop, etc.).

[0057] It would, of course, be far more convenient if, when someonewanted a house, they were given a complete house that they could theneasily modify (with the press of a button). For example, they could walkinto the kitchen and instantly change it to be larger, or a differentcolor, or with additional windows. And they could walk into the bathroomand raise the ceiling, put in a hot tub, etc. They could walk into theliving room and try different paint schemes, or different furnitureStyles, etc. Similarly, in accordance with embodiments of the presentinvention, the user desirably is provided with a complete song to beginwith, they can then easily modify, at various levels from general tospecific, to create a song that is unique and in accordance with theuser's desires, tastes and preferences.

[0058] In accordance with the present invention, the general populationof people readily may be provided with an easy approach to musicalcreation. It allows them the immediate gratification of a complete song,while still allowing them to compose original music. This top downapproach to musical creation opens the world of musical creativity to alarger group of people by reducing the barriers to creating pleasurablemusic.

[0059] In accordance with the present invention, various systems andmethods are provided that enable users to create music. Such systems andmethods desirably utilize intuitive and easy to learn and use userinterfaces that facilitate the creation of, and interaction with, musicthat is being created, or was created previously. Various aspects of oneexample of a preferred embodiment for a user interface in accordancewith certain preferred embodiments of the present invention will now bedescribed.

[0060] In accordance with such preferred embodiments of the presentinvention, user interface features are provided that desirablyfacilitate the interactive generation of music. The discussion of suchpreferred embodiments to be herein after provided are primarily focusedon one example of a handheld, entry-level type of device, herein called‘Player’. However, many of the novel and inventive features discussed inconnection with such a Player relate to the visual enhancement of thecontrol and architecture of the music generation process; accordinglythey can apply to other types of devices, such as computing devices, webserver/websites, kiosks, video, or other electronic games and otherentertainment devices that allow music creation and interaction, andthus also may benefit from such aspects of the present invention. Adiscussion of certain of the other types of devices is providedhereinafter. As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art,various features of the user interface of the Player can be understoodto apply to such a broader range of devices.

[0061] Generally, the goal of the user interface is to allow intuitive,simple operation of the system and interaction with various parameterswith a minimum number of buttons, while at the same time preserving thepower of the system. FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary systemconfiguration for Player 10. Display 20 provides visual information tothe user, as will hereinafter be described. Various mode keys 16 providebuttons that enable a user to directly access, or initiation, modes ofoperation of the system as will be hereinafter described. Joystick 15 isprovided to enable the user to select or interact with various musicalor system parameters or the like, as will be hereinafter described.Save/edit key 17 preferably is provided to save songs or parameterchanges, etc., that a user may have created or made using the system,and also to initiate editing of parameters, Play lists, samples, etc.,such as will be described hereinafter. Volume key(s) 14 is/are provided,either in dual button up/down form or a single knob or dial to enablethe output volume level to be adjusted. Function keys 11 preferably areprovided to enable player functions such as play (ok), stop (cancel),forward (insert/create), reverse (delete) and record, exemplary uses ofwhich will be described in greater detail hereinafter. FX key 12preferably is provided to enable a user to easily and intuitively adjustone or more audio effects (e.g., doppler, reverb, wobbler, custom, etc.)of a part of the music (e.g., a particular sample sound); one preferredway to enable an intuitive sound effect selection by the user is toenable to FX key 12 to be used in combination with the Joystick 15 leftand right controls, a corresponding preferred way to enable intuitivesound effect adjustment (e.g., increase or decrease the effect of theselected sound effect) is to enable to the FX Key 12 to be used incombination with the Joystick 15 up and down controls. Pitch/tempo key13 preferably is provided to enable single button activation forpitch/tempo changes (preferably along with joystick movements), as willbe hereinafter described in greater detail. On/off button 18 preferablyis provided to turn on or off the player, and preferably a briefdepression/toggle can be used to turn on/off an LCD backlight, although,for example, other turn off modes may be used as well (such as a timeout turn off, when the player is not playing and there has been noactivity detected for a predetermined time out period, etc. Exemplarydesirable uses of such buttons and keys provided in the illustrativePlayer 10 embodiment will become more apparent based on the discussionto follow.

[0062] In accordance with preferred embodiments, a Home mode isprovided. Home mode is a default mode that can be automatically enteredwhen Player 10 is turned on. As the example of FIG. 4 shows, Home modepreferably displays an animated screen prompting the user to select amode by pressing a direct access mode key 16 or entering help mode bypressing the joystick (FIG. 4 depicts the moment of the animation thatprompts for the Radio direct access key). In preferred embodiments, auser can define the graphics displayed on the display 20 using, forexample, a companion PC software program (discussed in greater detailbelow) to select graphics (animated or otherwise) to be automaticallysubstituted (if available) for the default graphics during the differentmodes of operation. In this example of custom screens, data filescorresponding to the customized screen graphics for each section of asong, and/or each mode of operation, preferably can be stored as part ofthe song data structure (discussed below) in a storage location of aremovable memory means such as the Flash memory in a Smart Media Card(SMC). In preferred embodiments, in Home mode the screen scrolls throughvarious modes that are available in the system, such as modes associatedwith mode/direct access keys 16 (see, again, FIG. 1). Additionally,Player 10 preferably is configured to return to Home mode from the mainmenu of any other mode (i.e., from the user pressing the Stop key). Whenthe joystick is pressed in Home mode, preferably a help screen isdisplayed prompting the user to press any key for help. An example helpscreen is shown in FIG. 5. In accordance with this example, when a keyis pressed while Player 10 is displaying this screen, helpful textrelating to that key is displayed.

[0063] Play can be used when in Home mode to enter a particularlyimportant visual interface mode referred to herein as the I-Way mode(discussed in greater detail below). As shown in the example of FIG. 6,the preferably LCD screen can display a message regarding other possiblemodes, such as “e.DJ Style”, in the status line and propose a selectionof music Styles/SubStyles (e.g.; Techno Mix, House, Garage, etc.). Atthis type of screen, to select a desired Style, a user can press Up orDown. In this example, Styles in uppercase preferably denote a categoryof SubStyles that are randomly chosen for each song, and SubStylespreferably are indicated by lowercase Styles proceeding each uppercaseStyle. Once the user selects a Style, to enter I-Way mode with theselected Style, the user can press Play. Once the I-Way mode is entered,preferably Player 10 automatically creates, and starts playing, a songin the chosen Style. Exemplary Styles/SubStyles that preferably areprovided in accordance with certain preferred embodiments include:Coolmix (SubStyles ballad, bossa, new age); Hip Hop Mix (SubStyles hiphop, rap, R&B, downbeat, ragga); Kitsch; Techno Mix (SubStyles house,garage, trance, jungle); etc. What is important to note is that, inaccordance with preferred embodiments, distinct music Styles aredetermined, at least some of the musical Styles including distinctSubStyles, wherein characteristics of the particular Style and/orSubStyle result in different musical rules being applied to theautomatic creation of music in accordance with the particularStyle/SubStyle (the use of musical rules and other algorithmic and otherdetails of the preferred music generation process is discussed ingreater detail elsewhere herein), with an intuitive and easy to useinterface provided to enable the ready creation and user modification ofmusic in accordance with the particular Style/SubStyle, etc. Inadditional embodiments the use of an even finer gradation of musicalaesthetic is available to the user in the form of a MicroStyle. Forexample, a plurality of MicroStyles are provided that all generallyconform to a particular SubStyle, while the SubStyle is accompanied byone or more other SubStyles that together generally conform to aparticular Style. This third tier of musical granularity preferablygives the discerning user even finer control over the musical output ofthe algorithmic music. Such MicroStyles preferably provide moreconsistent music, while perhaps losing some of the flexibility ofStyles/SubStyles. What is important is that the user is provided with aplurality of levels of musical style categorizations, where basically ateach descending level the range of musical parameters that may be variedby the user and/or the auto-composition algorithm and the like areprogressively more constrained, consistent with the particular Style,SubStyle or MicroStyle that is selected, etc.

[0064] An important feature of Home mode is the ability to configurePlayer 10 to start playing music quickly and easily. This is because,although Player 10 is configured to be interactive, and manyprofessional-grade features are available to adjust various aspects ofthe Style and sound, it is desirable to have a quick and easy way forusers to use the Player in a ‘press-it-and-forget-it’ mode. Thus, withonly very few button pushes, a user with little or no musicalexperience, or little or no experience with Player 10, may easily begincomposing original music with Player 10 of a desired Style or SubStyle.An additional preferred way to provide an auto-play type of capabilityis to use a removable storage memory medium (e.g., Smart Media Card) tostore a Play list, such as a file containing a list of song datastructures that are present on the removable memory. Following thisexample, when the user inserts the removable memory, or when the systemis powered on with a removable memory already inserted, preferably thesystem will scan the removable memory to look for such a file containinga Play list and begin to play the song data structures that are listedin the system file. Preferably, this arrangement can be configured suchthat the Auto-Play mode is selectable (such as via a configurationsetting in the system file), and that the system will wait a shortduration before beginning Auto-Play, to allow the user an opportunity toenter a different mode on the system if so desired.

[0065] As illustrated in FIG. 7, an exemplary, preferred screen for anI-Way mode depicts the front view of the user driving or moving down avisual representation of a highway or multi-lane road or path. Along thevery top of the screen preferably is a status message that displays thecurrent section or status of the ongoing eDJ session (for example: part1, filtering drums, chorus, Part 2, <<sample name>>, etc.). Preferably,other ways of displaying messages to the user to more prominentlyindicate a status message can be used; for example, the system canmomentarily flash a large visual indicator that takes up almost theentire screen. Preferably, directly in front of the field of view is avisual representation of a speaker that preferably is pulsing in timewith the music being played. Preferably, each lane of the I-Wayrepresents various types of elements of a song; such as instrument lanes(drums, bass, riff, lead), one or more sample lanes (to interact withpre-stored samples of voices, sounds, etc), and one or more microphonelanes which manage the microphone input in real-time. Other categoriesfor lanes can be envisioned that are within the spirit and scope of thepresent invention. What is important to this aspect of the presentinvention that the user be presented with a multi-lane visualrepresentation that includes a plurality of lanes, each of whichcorresponds to a constituent component or effect, etc., of the musicthat is being composed or played. The user preferably uses joystick 15(for example, a circular button that can depress in 4 areas: top,bottom, left and right, such as illustrated in FIG. 1) to move thecenter of view around. Generally, each directional depression ofjoystick 15 causes the center of view to shift in the correspondingdirection. For example, when in the left lane and the right joystickbutton is pressed, the center of view moves over one lane to the right.In alternative embodiments, additional layers of interactivity can bepresented with additional horizontal layers of the I-Way. For example,when at the lane of the I-Way for the drums (an instrument with distinctinstrument components, such as snare, bass, floor tom, high hat, crashcymbal, ping-ride cymbal, roto-toms, etc.; orchestral percussion, suchas tympani, gong, triangle, etc.), the user could press the down key togo down to another I-Way for the drums or other multiple componentinstrument, with a lane for each drum or component, and/or for differentaspects of the drum or instrument sound. This concept of multiple I-Wayinterfaces can be selectively used for only the instruments that benefitfrom such an approach, such as the drums or other multiple componentinstrument (while other instruments maintain a single I-Way interface,etc.). The use of additional I-Way lanes is not necessary to enjoy allthe benefits of the present invention, but is a desirable feature forcertain uses of the invention, such as products geared for moreprofessional uses, or for music Styles where additional user interfaceand instrument control complexity is desirable, such as classical music,or jazz.

[0066] While in I-Way mode, the screen preferably is animated with soundwaves or pulses synchronized with music beats. In the example of FIG. 7,a visual representation of a round speaker is graphically represented inthe center to symbolize the relative volume of the current lane. Thisgraphic item preferably is configured to disappear, or be otherwisealtered, when the lane is muted. It also can be configured to becomebigger and smaller as the relative volume of that particularlane/section is adjusted (for example, by using a function key incombination with the joystick up and down buttons). Other simplevariations are within the scope of the present invention, such as volumeindicators visible in each lane at the same time, mute indications foreach lane visible at the same time, graphic items in each lane visuallyreminiscent of the instrument represented by that lane, etc.

[0067] In an auto composition mode such as the I-Way mode it is Player10 itself preferably that decides about a song progression in that itcan automatically add/remove instruments, do music breaks, drumsprogressions, chord progressions, filtering, modulation, play samples insync with the music, select samples to play based on rules, etc., to endup sounding like in a real song on a CD or from the radio. After a fewminutes, if nothing is done by the user, Player 10 preferably isconfigured to end the song, preferably with an automatic fade out ofvolume, and automatically compose and play a new song in the same Style,or alternatively a different Style. It also should be understood thatI-Way mode also is applicable in preferred embodiments for music that isnot auto-composed, such as a song that the user created/modified usingPlayer 10 (which may have been created in part using auto-composition)and stored in Player 10 for subsequent playback, etc.

[0068] In certain embodiments, newly composed patterns are numbered from1 to n. This number can be displayed in the status line to help the userremember a music pattern he/she likes and come back to it after havingtried a few other ones. In certain embodiments, this number might onlybe valid inside a given song and for the current interactive session. Inother words, for example, the Riff pattern number 5 for the current songbeing composed would not sound like the Riff pattern number 5 composedin another song. However, if this song is saved as a user song, althoughthe Riff music will be the same when replayed later, the numberassociated to it could be different.

[0069] In one exemplary embodiment, Player 10 “remembers” up to 16patterns previously composed during the current interactive session.This means, for example, that if the current pattern number displayed is25, the user can listen to patterns from number 10 to 25 by browsingforward through the previously composed patterns (patterns 1-9, in thisembodiment, having been overwritten or otherwise discarded). If the Userwants to skip a given composed pattern that is currently being played,he/she can, and the pattern number will not be incremented, meaning thatcurrently played pattern will be lost. This feature can be used to storeonly specific patterns in the stack of previously played patterns, asdesired by the user. What is important is that the user can createmusical patterns, and selectively store (up to some predetermined numberof musical patterns), with the stored patterns used to compose musicthat is determined by the user based on the user's particular tastes ordesires, etc. The views presented by I-Way mode desirably facilitatethis user creation and interaction with, and modification of, the musicthat is be created/played by Player 10.

[0070] In certain preferred embodiments, if desired by a user,additional music parameters of an instrument associated with aparticular lane in the I-Way mode may be “viewed” and interacted with bythe user. For example, if a Down is pressed (such as by way of joystick15) while in I-Way mode, the center of view is taken “underground,” tothe “inside” of a particular lane. This transition to Underground modepreferably is made visually appealing by configuring a screen animationdepicting the movement of the point of view down through the floor orbottom of the I-Way lane, into what appears to be a visualrepresentation of a tunnel below a particular lane that corresponds tothe musical component represented by that lane. When inside the tunnelbeneath a particular lane, a pulse indication (similar to the speakerpulse) preferably occurs in time with the tempo of the I-Way session.Furthermore, the left and right walls of the tunnel can be used toindicate the wave shape of the left and right sound channel outputs.

[0071] The far end of the tunnel preferably is comprised of a shape (forexample, a rectangle or other geometric) that can change in correlationto the value of one or more of the parameters affecting the sound ofthat particular lane. By way of example, in the case of drums, a filterparameter can be changed by depressing the function or Fx button (see,again FIG. 1), plus the joystick up or down button; at this time theshape comprising the end of the tunnel either changes shape or visuallyappears to get farther away or nearer. In another example, the pitch ofa guitar can be adjusted by pressing the pitch key along with the leftor right joystick button; at the same time, the shape can become more orless slanted as the pitch parameter is incremented or decremented invalue, or alternatively a visual representation of the tunnel going uphill or down hill can be provided to visually represent an increase ordecrease in pitch. In other examples, to change a right/left or stereobalance type of effect, the function or Fx button could be depressed toput the system in a mode to change the parameter along with left/rightor up/down joystick button; such inputs could, for example, result inthe sound balance going more towards the right channel than the leftchannel (and be accompanied by a visual representation of the tunnelturning to the right, or vice versa for the balance shifting towards theleft channel), or the tunnel opening becoming larger in width or smallerin width if a wider or narrower stereo effect is desired. These are butseveral examples of how the shape or other visual effect can bemodulated in correlation to the user input to one or more parameterseffecting the sound. What is important is that, when the user “tunnels”into a particular instrument lane, various parameters associated withthe instrument are changeable by the user, with at least certain of thechanges in parameter being accompanied by a change in the visualrepresentations provided to the user, such as the shape, size, color(for color display embodiments) or motions of the displayed visualrepresentations.

[0072] While in Underground mode, Player 10 preferably is configured tocontinue looping with the same musical sequence while the user is ableto interact with and modify the specific element (e.g., the drums) usingthe joystick and other buttons of Player 10. Also, while down in a lanecorresponding to a particular component, preferably the left and rightbuttons of the joystick can be used to move from one component parameterto another. Alternatively, side to side joystick movements, for example,may enable the user to step through a series of preset characteristicsor parameters (i.e., with simple joystick type user input, the user maychange various parameters of the particular component, hear the musiceffect(s) associated with such parameter changes, and determinedesirable characteristics for the particular music desired by the userat the particular point in time, etc.). In yet another alternative, sideto side joystick movements, for example, may cause the view to shiftfrom one tunnel to an adjacent tunnel, etc. All such alternatives arewithin the scope of the present invention.

[0073] In addition to other similar variations, the user can mute aparticular lane in the I-Way mode preferably by use of Stop key (shownin FIG. 2). In this example, while the lane is muted, “Muted” can bedisplayed in the status bar and the round speaker can disappear.Preferably in accordance with such embodiments, the user can un-mute theinstrument by again pressing the Stop key.

[0074] An additional desirable variation of the user interfacepreferably involves animating a change to the visual appearance,corresponding to a new song part. For example, if in the Undergroundmode shown in FIG. 8, or in the I-Way mode shown in FIG. 7, the movementto a chorus section is accompanied by a movement through an openingdoorway. The graphic animation corresponding to a given section of thesong (e.g., chorus, intro, bridge, ending, etc.) can be used each timethat section is played during the song. Examples of transitions are:having the user go through a door from a tunnel with one set of visualcharacteristics, to a tunnel with a second set of visualcharacteristics. Another example is to have the user move through atransition doorway from a tunnel to a wider tunnel, or even an openarea. The preferable feature of this aspect of the present invention isto provide an engaging experience for the user by coordinating ananimation transition that is closely linked to a musical transitionbetween song parts.

[0075] Alternatives to the I-Way and Underground concepts can also beadvantageously used with the present invention. For example, a userinterface that visually depicts the instruments that are in the currentsong, and allows the user to select one to go into a tunnel or levelwhere parameters of the particular instrument may be adjusted. In thisexample, while the music is playing, the user interface provides visualrepresentations of the instruments in the current song, with the activeinstruments preferably emitting a visual pulse in time with the music.FIG. 13 is an example of such a user interface. In accordance with suchembodiments, the user can select a particular visual picture of aninstrument (for example, such as with joystick 15 or function keys 11)and go into that instrument. For example, by selecting the vibratingdrumset 25, the user can go into another level, such as corresponding tothe Underground mode discussed above with reference to FIG. 12, that haseach drum shown that is currently being played. Then, the user canselect and change different aspects of the drums, as well as the soundeffects, and drum tracks. If the user selected another instrument suchas are shown in FIG. 13, they would access a screen that allows them tosimilarly alter the parameters of that particular instrument track.Accordingly, the use of alternative themes for the user interface can beadvantageously employed with the present invention, especially a themewhere the actual instruments are depicted, as if on a stage. In certainembodiments, both or multiple types of user interfaces are provided, andthe user may select an I-Way type of user interface, such as shown inFIG. 7, or instrument group or other type of interface. What isimportant is that the user interface in preferred embodiments preferablyprovide an intuitive and easy to use way for users, who may have littleexperience in creating music, to visually appreciate the instrumentsused to create the music, and then have a visual way to access a mode inwhich parameters and effects associated with particular instruments maybe modified by the user, which is preferably accompanied by a visualchange that corresponds to the modified parameters/effects, etc.

[0076] Additionally, in certain preferred embodiments, the use of anexternal video display device (e.g., computer monitor, television, videoprojector, etc.) is used to display a more elaborate visualaccompaniment to the music being played. In such cases the I-Waygraphical display preferably is a more detailed rendition of the I-Wayshown in FIG. 7 (e.g., a higher resolution image in terms of color depthand/or dots per inch).

[0077] In certain preferred embodiments, pressing Play preferably causesthe lane instrument to enter Forced mode. This can be implemented toforce Player 10 to play this instrument pattern at all times untilForced mode is exited by pressing Play again when the lane of thatinstrument is active. In this case, if the instrument was not playing atthe time Forced mode is selected, Player 10 can be configured toautomatically compose the instrument pattern and play it starting at theend of the current sequence (e.g., 2 bars). In addition, pressing Playfor a relatively long period (e.g., a second or more) can pause themusic, at which time a “paused” message can flash in the status line.

[0078] In other preferred embodiments, where such a Forced mode may notbe desired (e.g., for simplicity, and/or because it may not be neededfor a particular type of music), pressing Play briefly preferably causesa Pause to occur. Such a pause preferably would have a ‘Paused’ messageappear on the Display 20, and preferably can be rhythmically quantizedsuch that it begins and ends in musical time with the song (e.g.,rhythmically rounded up or down to the nearest quarter note).

[0079] Solos

[0080] In Solo mode, all other instruments are muted (except for thosethat may already be in Solo mode) and only this instrument is playing.Solo mode preferably is enabled by entering a tunnel or other level fora particular instrument, and, if the instrument is already playingentering Solo mode upon pressing of Play (e.g., the instrument is inForced play and subsequent pressing of Play in Underground modeinitiates Solo mode for that instrument; the particular key entry intoSolo mode being exemplary). An instrument preferably remains soloed whenleaving the corresponding tunnel and going back to the music I-Way. Theuser also preferably must re-enter the corresponding tunnel to exit Solomode. Also, in certain embodiments multiple levels of Solo mode arepossible in that you can solo several tracks, one at a time or at thesame time, by going into different tunnels and enabling Solo mode. Inaddition, in certain embodiments the user preferably can enable/disableSolo mode from the I-Way by, for example, pressing Play for a long time(e.g., 2 seconds) while in a lane. Following this example, upondisabling Solo mode, any lanes that had previously been manually muted(before Solo mode was invoked) preferably will remain muted.

[0081] Preferably, from a Sample menu different sample parameters can beedited. From the Samples menu, the user can record, play and changeeffects on voice, music or sound samples. This menu also preferablypermits the creation and edition of sample lists. The LCD preferablydisplays “e.Samples” in the status line and a list of available samplesor sample lists in the storage media (for example, the SmartMedia card,discussed in connection with FIG. 32) to choose from.

[0082] When playing back a sample, the LCD preferably displays the playsample screen. The name of the sample preferably scrolls in a banner inthe center right part of the LCD while the audio output level isindicated by a sizable frame around the name. The status line preferablyshows the current effect.

[0083] Sample sets or lists preferably are used by the e.DJ, for usersongs, as well as MIDI files. In the case of MIDI files, preferably acompanion PC software program (e.g., a standard MIDI editing softwareprogram such as Cakewalk) is used to enable the user to edit their ownMDI files (if desired), and use MIDI non-registered parameter numbers(NRPNs are discussed below in more detail) to effectuate the playing ofsamples at a specific timing point. Following this example, thecompanion PC software program can be enabled to allow the user to insertsamples into the MIDI data, using NRPNs. When a new e.DJ song iscreated, Player 10 preferably picks one of the existing sample lists(sample sets preferably being associated with the particularStyle/SubStyle of music) and then plays samples in this list atappropriate times (determined by an algorithm, preferably based onpseudo random number generation, as hereinafter described) in the song.When creating or editing a user song, the user preferably can associatea sample list to this user song. Then, samples in this list will beinserted automatically in the song at appropriate times. Each samplelist can be associated with an e.DJ music Style/SubStyle. For instance,a list associated with the Techno Style can only be used by a Technouser song or by the e.DJ when playing Techno Style. In additionalvariations, the user preferably can specify specific timing for when aparticular sample is played in a song, by way of NRPNs discussed below.This specification of the timing of a particular sample preferably canbe indicated by the user through the use of a companion PC softwareprogram (e.g., a standard MIDI editing software program such asCakewalk), and/or through a text interface menu on the Player 10 itself.

[0084] New Sample lists preferably are created with a default name(e.g., SampleList001). The list preferably can be renamed in theSystem-files menu. When the selected item is a sample, the currenteffect preferably is displayed in the status line. When the selecteditem is a sample list, “List” preferably is displayed in the statusline.

[0085] Playback of preferably compressed audio, MIDI, Karaoke, and Usersongs (e.g., e.DJ songs that have been saved) preferably is accessiblevia the “Songs” mode. Songs can be grouped in so-called Play lists toplay programs (series) of songs in sequence. The LCD will display“e.Songs” in the status line and a list of available songs or Play listson the SmartMedia card to choose from.

[0086] Depending on the type of the song (for example, user song, MIDIor WMA), different parameters can be edited. The type of the currentselection preferably is indicated in the status bar: WMA (for WMAcompressed audio), MID (for MIDI songs), KAR (for MIDI karaoke songs),MAD x (for user songs {x=T for Techno Style, x=H for Hip-Hop, x=K forCool, etc.}), and List (for Play lists).

[0087] The name of the song preferably scrolls in a banner in the centerright part of the LCD while the audio output level is indicated by asizable frame around the name. If the song is a karaoke song, the lyricspreferably are displayed on two (or other number) lines at the bottom ofthe LCD. The animated frame preferably is not displayed. If the song isa user song (i.e., composed by the e.DJ and saved using the Save/Editbutton), the music I-Way mode is entered instead of the play song mode.

[0088] The edit screen preferably is then displayed, showing twocolumns; the left column lists the editable parameters or objects in theitem, the right column shows the current values of these parameters. Forexample, a Play list edit screen preferably will display slot numbers onthe left side and song names on the right side. The current objectpreferably is highlighted in reverse video.

[0089] Play lists are used to create song programs. New Play lists arepreferably created with a default name (e.g., PlayList001), andpreferably can be renamed by the user. When a list is selected andplayed in the song select screen, the first song on the list will beginplaying. At the end of the song, the next song preferably will start andso on until the end of the list is reached. Then, if the terminatinginstruction in the list is End List, the program preferably stops andPlayer 10 returns to the song select screen. If the terminatinginstruction is Loop List, the first song preferably will start again andthe program will loop until the user interrupts the song playing, suchas by pressing the stop button.

[0090] In one embodiment of the present invention, the features of aconventional radio are effectively integrated into the user interface ofthe present invention (see, e.g., the FM receiver 50 of FIG. 32). Forexample, when playing a station in Radio mode, the LCD preferably willdisplay a radio screen. The LCD preferably will display “Radio” in thestatus line as well as a list of available station presets to choosefrom. If no preset has been preset, only the currently tuned frequencymight be displayed. The name of the radio station (or frequency if it isnot a stored preset) can scroll in a banner in the center right part ofthe LCD. An animation representing radio waves can also be displayed.The status line preferably shows the tuned frequency. In suchembodiments Player 10 is enabled to operate as a conventional radiodevice.

[0091] In preferred embodiments, radio-type functionality involves theuse of the same type of Radio interface, with virtual stations ofdifferent Styles. Each virtual station preferably will generatecontinuous musical pieces of one or more of a particular Style orSubStyle. In this v.Radio mode, the user can “tune-in” to a station andhear continuous music, without the use of an actual radio. Such anarrangement can provide the experience of listening to a variety ofmusic, without the burden of hearing advertising, etc., and allows theuser to have more control over the Style of music that is played. Insuch embodiments, a user will enter v.Radio mode and be presented with alist of v.Radio stations, each preferably playing a particular Style orSubStyle of music. The user then preferably “tunes” to a v.Radio channelby selecting a channel and pressing play, for example (see, e.g., FIG.10), which causes Player 10 to begin auto-composing and playing songs inaccordance with the particular v.Radio channel. In certain embodiments,the v.Radio may be controlled to play user songs of the particular Styleor SubStyle associated with the particular v.Radio channel, which may beintermixed with auto-composed songs of the particular type of SubStyle.In yet other embodiments, one or more v.Radio channels may be providedthat play songs of more than a single Style or SubStyle, which also maybe intermixed with user songs of various Styles or SubStyles. With suchembodiments, the user is provided options to select the particular typeof v.Radio channel that Player 10 “tunes” in. Additionally, in certainembodiments the v.Radio mode preferably can be used to play a variety ofdifferent song formats (e.g., MP3, WAV, WMA, eDJ, etc.).

[0092] In accordance with certain embodiments, another variation of theRadio feature integrates some aspects of the v.Radio with other aspectsof the Radio. As one example, a user could listen to a Radio station,and when a commercial break comes on, Player 10 switches to the v.Radio.Then, when the real music comes back on, the device can switch back to aRadio. Another integration is to have news information from the Radiocome in between v.Radio music, according to selectable intervals. Forexample, most public radio stations in the USA have news, weather, andtraffic information every ten minutes during mornings and afternoons.The v.Radio can be configured to operate as a virtual radio, and at theproperly selected interval, switch to a public station to play the news.Then it can switch back to the v.Radio mode. These variations providethe capability for a new listening experience, in that the user can havemore control over the radio, yet still be passively listening. It isconsidered that such an arrangement would have substantial use forcommercial applications, as discussed elsewhere in this disclosure.

[0093] Special functions can preferably be accessed from the Systemmenu. These functions preferably include: file management on theSmartMedia card (rename, delete, copy, list, change attributes) (the useof such SmartMedia or other Flash/memory/hard disk type of storagemedium is discussed, for example, in connection with FIG. 32), Playerconfiguration (auto-play, power off, delay, keypad auto-repeat,language, etc.), firmware upgrade, SmartMedia card formatting,microphone settings, and equalizer user presets. The Player canpreferably modify various attributes of a file stored on the SmartMediacard. As a precaution, by default, all system files preferably can beset as read only.

[0094] In certain embodiments a User Configuration interface preferablyenables the user to enter a name to be stored with the song data on theremovable memory storage (e.g., SMC), and/or to enable the user todefine custom equalization settings, and/or sound effects. As an exampleof EQ settings, it is preferable to enable the user to select from agroup of factory preset equalizer settings, such as flat (e.g., no EQeffect), standard (e.g., slight boost of lower and higher frequencies),woof (e.g., bass frequency boost), and hitech (e.g., high frequencyboost). In addition to such preset EQ settings, it is preferable toenable the user to define their own desired settings for the EQ (as anexample, a 4 band EQ with the ability to adjust each of the 4 bands byway of the joystick). Additionally, in certain embodiments it ispreferable to enable the user to similarly customize sound effects to beused for particular samples. Following this example, in addition to aset of standard factory preset sound effects such as Lowvoice (e.g.,plays the song with a slower speed and lower pitch to enable the user tosing along with a lower voice), reverb, Highvoice (e.g., plays the songwith a faster speed and higher pitch), Doppler (e.g., varying the soundfrom Highvoice to Lowvoice), and Wobbler (e.g., simulating severalvoices with effects), it is preferable to make a customized effectcapability available to the user that can incorporate variouscombinations of standard effects, and in varying levels and/or withvarying parameter values.

[0095] When the user saves a song that is being played in e-DJ mode, thesong is preferably created with a default name (e.g. TECHNO001). Thesong can preferably be renamed in the System-files menu. When enteringthe Files menu, files present on the SmartMedia card and the free memorysize are preferably listed in an edit screen format. The status linepreferably indicates the number of files and the amount of used memory.The file management menu preferably offers a choice of actions toperform on the selected file: delete, rename, copy, change attributes,etc. The name of the current file preferably is displayed in the statusline. Additionally, in certain embodiments it is preferable to enablethe use of System parameter files that contain, for example, settingsfor radio presets (e.g., radio station names and frequencies), settingsfor certain parameters (e.g., pitch, tempo, volume, reverb, etc.)associated with music files such as WAV, WMA, MP3, MIDI, Karaoke, etc.In these embodiments it is preferable for the parameter setting to applyto the entire file.

[0096] When entering the Configuration menu, an edit screen preferablyis displayed showing various configurable parameters. FIG. 14 describessome of the parameters that are preferably configurable by theConfiguration menu, along with possible values. When modifying aselected character in a file name, Forward preferably can be used toinsert a character after the highlighted one, and Backward preferably todelete the highlighted character. To save the edits and go back to filemenu, Play preferably can be used.

[0097] When selecting copy, a screen proposing a name for thedestination file in a large font preferably is displayed. This namepreferably is proposed automatically based on the type of the sourcefile. For instance if the source file is a Hiphop user song, theproposed name for the destination file could be HIPHOP001(alternatively, the user preferably can use the rename proceduredescribed above to enter the name of the destination file).

[0098] The Firmware Upgrade menu preferably permits the upgrade of thePlayer firmware (embedded software) from a file stored on the SmartMediacard. Preferably, it is not possible to enter the Upgrade firmware menuif no firmware file is available on the SmartMedia card. In this case awarning message is displayed and the Player preferably returns toSystems menu. In additional embodiments, the use of a bootstrap programpreferably is enabled to allow the firmware to be updated from aremovable memory location (e.g., SMC). Such a bootstrap programpreferably can alternatively be used for upgrading the DSP 42 soundbanklocated in Flash 49.

[0099] The Player function keys, identified in FIG. 2, preferably arecomprised of the standard buttons found on CD-players or VCRs, and areused to control the playback of songs (e.g.; Player-proprietary, MIDI,WMA, MP3, etc). The Record key controls recording (e.g.; samples). Whenused in editing or selection menus the player keys also have thefollowing actions: Play preferably is used to select a sub menu orvalidate a change, Stop preferably is used to go back to previous menu,cancel an action or discard a change, Forward preferably is used toinsert an item in a list, and REVERSE preferably is used to delete anitem in a list. This is one example of how to use a minimum of keys in adevice, while retaining a relatively large set of features, while alsokeeping the user interface relatively intuitive for a variety of users.

[0100] When a list is selected in the song select screen, pressing Playpreferably will start playing the first song in the list. While thesample lane is selected, Play preferably can be configured to startplaying the selected sample. While in an instrument lane, Playpreferably can be configured to enter solo mode for the currentinstrument, or Forced mode.

[0101] To create a song/sample list, Forward preferably can be usedwhile in the song or sample select screen.

[0102] To leave an edit screen, Stop preferably can be used to discardthe edits and exit. For example, in the sample selection screen pressStop to go back to the Home screen. Additionally, for any giveninstrument during playback, Stop preferably can be used as a toggle tomute/unmute the instrument.

[0103] Record preferably can be pressed once to start recording a sample(recording samples preferably is possible in almost any operating modeof the Player). Record preferably can be pressed again to end therecording (recording preferably is stopped automatically if the size ofthe stored sample file exceeds a set size, such as 500 Kbytes). Therecord source preferably is chosen automatically depending on theoperating mode. If no music is playing, the record source preferably isthe active microphone (local or docking station). If music is playingsongs, e.DJ or radio, the record source preferably is a mix of the musicand the microphone input if not muted. Further, it is possible to usedifferent sample recording formats that together provide a range ofsize/performance options. For example, very high quality sample encodingformat may take more space on the storage medium, while a relatively lowquality encoding format may take less space. Also, different formats maybe more suited for a particular musical Style, etc.

[0104] In v-Radio mode, to listen to the selected station, Playpreferably can be used. Press Play to mute the radio. Press Stop to goback to station preset selection screen. To launch an automatic searchof the next station up the band, press Forward until the search starts.To launch an automatic search of the next station down the band, pressBackward until the search starts. Press Forward/Backward briefly tofine-tune up/down by 50 kHz steps.

[0105] In eDJ Mode, while in Sample lane, Play preferably can be pressedto play a selected sample. If sample playback had previously beendisabled, the first press on Play preferably will re-enable it.Subsequent presses preferably will play the selected sample. If a sampleif playing, Stop preferably will stop it. If no sample is playing,pressing Stop preferably will mute the samples (i.e. disable theautomatic playback of samples by the e-DJ when returning to I-Way mode).When muted, “Muted” preferably is displayed in the status bar and theround speaker preferably disappears on the I-Way sample lane.

[0106] In Song mode, to start the playback of selected song or Playlist, preferably press Play and the LCD will preferably display the playsong screen. In Song mode, Stop preferably can be pressed to stop themusic and preferably go back to song selection screen. Preferably pressForward briefly to go to next song (if playing a Play list, thispreferably will go to the next song in the list; otherwise, thispreferably will go to the next song on the SmartMedia). Preferably pressForward continuously to fast forward the song. Preferably press Backwardbriefly to go to the beginning of the song and a second press preferablytakes you to the previous song (if playing a Play list, this preferablywill go to the previous song in the list; otherwise, this preferablywill go to the previous song on the SmartMedia). Preferably pressBackward continuously to quickly go backward in the song.

[0107] Pressing Stop can be a way to toggle the muting of aninstrument/lane. For example, when on a Drums lane, pressing Stopbriefly preferably can mute the drums, and pressing it again brieflypreferably can un-mute the drums. Additionally, pressing Stop forrelatively long period (e.g., a second or so) preferably can beconfigured to stop the music and go back to Style selection screen.

[0108] Forward preferably can be configured to start a new song.Backward preferably can be used to restart the current song.

[0109] Forward or Backward preferably can be used to keep the samepattern but change the instrument playing (preferably only “compatible”instruments will be picked and played by the Player).

[0110] Preferably press Stop to mute microphone. Preferably press Playto un-mute the microphone.

[0111] To start the playback of the selected sample, preferably pressPlay. Preferably press Stop to stop the sample and go back to sampleselection screen.

[0112] In Song mode, preferably press Play to pause the music.Preferably press Play again to resume playback. Pressing Forward key inthe song select screen preferably will create a new Play list. In thesong selection screen, preferably press Stop to go back to the Homescreen.

[0113] In the Style selection screen preferably press Stop to go back tothe Home screen.

[0114] To enter the file management menu for the highlighted file,preferably press Play.

[0115] While browsing the file management list, preferably press Forwardto scroll down to next page. Press Backward preferably to scroll up toprevious page.

[0116] In the file management menu, to start a selected action,preferably press Play.

[0117] When selecting Delete, preferably a confirmation screen isdisplayed.

[0118] When selecting Rename, preferably a screen showing the name ofthe file in big font is displayed and the first character is preferablyselected and blinking.

[0119] When copying a file, preferably press Play to validate the copy.If a file of the same type as the source file exists with the same name,preferably a confirmation screen asks if the file should be overwritten.Select YES or No and preferably press Play to validate. Press Stop toabort the copy and preferably return to file menu. It is a preferablefeature of this embodiment to allow files to be copied from oneremovable memory storage location (e.g., SMC) to another by use of MP 36RAM. In this example, it is a desirable to enable the copying ofindividual song or system files from one SMC to another without using acompanion PC software program, however, in the case where an entireremovable memory storage volume (e.g., all the contents of a particularSMC) is to be copied, it is desirable to use a companion PC softwareprogram to allow larger groups of data to be temporarily buffered (usingthe PC resources) by way of the USB connection to the PC. Such a featuremay not be possible in certain embodiments without the PC system (e.g.,using the MP 36 internal RAM) because it likely would involve the userrepeatedly swapping the SMC target and source volumes.

[0120] The e-DJ, v-Radio, Songs, Samples and System direct access keysdetailed in FIG. 3 preferably permit the user to directly enter thedesired mode from within any other mode. These keys preferably can alsobe used to stop any mode, including the current mode. This can be fasterthan the Stop key, because in some cases, such as while in eDJ Modeinside a lane, the Stop key preferably may be used to mute the lane,rather than stop the eDJ Mode.

[0121] The audio output control is identified in FIG. 1 as Vol. Up/Down.Audio output control keys preferably are also used to control themicrophone input when used in combination with prefix keys.

[0122] The Up/Down/Left/Right keys preferably comprise a joystick thatcan be used for: menu navigation, song or music Style selection, andreal time interaction with playing music. Additionally, Up/Downpreferably can be used for moving between modes such as the Underground& I-Way modes in an intuitive manner.

[0123] When editing a list, objects preferably can be inserted ordeleted by pressing Forward to insert an object after the highlightedone or pressing Backward to delete the highlighted object.

[0124] To browse the list or select parameters, preferably use Up/Down.To edit the highlighted object preferably press Right. Press Leftpreferably to go directly to first item in the list.

[0125] In instrument tunnels (i.e.; Drums, Bass, Riff and Lead), Rightpreferably can be configured to compose a new music pattern. Similarly,Left preferably can be used to return to previous patterns (see notebelow on music patterns). The new pattern preferably will besynchronized with the music and can start playing at the end of thecurrent music sequence (e.g., 2 bars). In the mean time, preferably a“Composing . . . ” message can be configured to appear on the statusline. Additionally, Down preferably can be used to compose a new musicpattern without incrementing the pattern number. This preferably has thesame effect as Right (compose and play another pattern), except that thepattern number preferably won't be incremented.

[0126] One benefit of these composition features is that they enable theuser to change between patterns during a live performance. As can beappreciated, another reason for implementing this feature is that theuser preferably can assemble a series of patterns that can be easilyalternated. After pressing Right only to find that the newly composedpattern is not as desirable as the others, the user preferably cansubsequently select Down to discard that pattern and compose another.Upon discovering a pattern that is desirable, the user preferably canthereafter use Right and Left to go back and forth, between thedesirable patterns. Additionally, this feature preferably allows thesystem to make optimum use of available memory for saving patterns. Byallowing the user to discard patterns that are less desirable, theavailable resources preferably can be used to store more desirablepatterns.

[0127] In the file management menu, to select a desired action,preferably use Up/Down. When renaming files, the user preferably can useLeft/Right to select the character to be modified, and Up/Down to modifythe selected character. Pressing Right when the last character isselected preferably will append a new character. The user preferably canalso use the Forward/Backward player function keys at these times toinsert/delete characters.

[0128] In the microphone tunnel, Left/Right preferably can be configuredto change microphone input left/right balance. In the sample tunnel,Left/Right preferably can be used to select a sample. Pressing Forwardin the sample select screen preferably will create a new sample list.

[0129] Down is an example of an intuitive way to enter the Undergroundmode for the current I-Way mode lane. In this mode, the user preferablycan change the pattern played by the selected instrument (drums, bass,riff or lead) and preferably apply digital effects to it. Similarly, Uppreferably can be configured to go back to music I-Way from theUnderground mode.

[0130] In v-Radio mode, to select the desired station preset, preferablyuse Up/Down. Preferably use Up/Down to go to previous/next station inthe preset list and preferably press Save/Edit while a station isplaying to store it in the preset list.

[0131] The Save/Edit key preferably can be used to save the current songas a User song that can be played back later. Such a song preferablycould be saved to a secondary memory location, such as the SmartMediacard. In the case of certain Player embodiments, this preferably can bedone at any time while the e-DJ song is playing, as only the “seeds”that generated the song preferably are stored in order to be able tore-generate the same song when played back as a User song. In certainembodiments it is preferable to incorporate a save routine thatautomatically saves revised files as a new file (e.g., with the samename but a different suffix). Such a feature can be used toautomatically keep earlier versions of a file.

[0132] While the use of seeds is discussed elsewhere in this disclosure,it may be helpful at this point to make an analogy on the use of theSave/Edit 17 key. This key is used to save the basic parameters of thesong in a very compact manner, similar to the way a DNA sequencecontains the parameters of a living organism. The seeds occupy verylittle space compared to the information in a completed song, but theyare determinative of the final song. Given the same set of saved seeds,the Player algorithm of the present invention preferably can generatethe exact same sequence of music. So, while the actual music preferablyis not stored in this example (upon the use of the Save/Edit 17 key),the fundamental building blocks of the music is stored very efficiently.The desirability of such an approach can be appreciated in a system withrelatively limited resources, such as a system with a relativelylow-cost/low performance processor and limited memory. The desirabilityof such a repeatable, yet extremely compact method of storing music canalso be contemplated in certain alternative embodiments, such as thoseinvolving the communication with other systems over a relatively narrowband transmission medium, such as a 56 kbps modem link to the internet,or an iRDA/bluetooth type of link to another device. Clearly thisfeature can be advantageously employed using other relatively lowbandwidth connections between systems as well. Additionally, thisfeature allows the user to store many more data files (e.g., songs) in agiven amount of storage, and among other advantages, this efficiencyenhances other preferable features, such as the automatic saving ofrevised files as new files (as discussed above).

[0133] In certain embodiments, it is desirable to check the resourcesavailable to a removable memory interface (e.g., the SMC interfaceassociated with SMC 40) to safeguard the user song in instances where aremovable memory volume is not inserted, and/or there is not enoughavailable storage on an inserted removable memory volume. In thesecases, when the user saves a song (e.g., pushes the Save/Edit key 17button) it is advantageous to prompt the user to insert an additionalremovable memory volume.

[0134] The name of the song preferably can be temporarily displayed inthe status line, in order to be able to select this song (as a file)later on for playback. Of course the song file name preferably can bechanged later on if the User wishes to do so. Once an item has beencreated, it preferably can be edited by selecting it in the song orsample selection screens and pressing Save/Edit. Pressing Save/Editagain will preferably save the edited item and exit. When the On/Off keyis pressed for more than 2 seconds, the Player preferably can beconfigured to turn on or off, yet when this combination is pressed onlybriefly, the On/Off key can alternatively preferably be configured toturn the LCD backlight on or off.

[0135] When Pitch/Tempo is pressed simultaneously with Left or Right, itpreferably can be used as a combination to control the tempo of themusic. When Pitch/Tempo is pressed simultaneously with Up/Down, itpreferably can control the pitch of the microphone input, the music,etc.

[0136] When Effects/Filters is pressed simultaneously with Left/Right orUp/Down, it preferably can control the effect (for example, cutofffrequency or resonance) and/or volume (perhaps including mute) appliedon a given instrument, microphone input, or sample.

[0137] As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, otherrelated combinations can be employed along these lines to provideadditional features without detracting from the usability of the device,and without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention.

[0138] Various examples of preferred embodiments for the structuring ofa song of the present invention will now be described. Preferably for anew song, the only user input needs to be an input Style. Preferablyeven this is not required when an auto-play feature is enabled thatcauses the Style itself to be pseudo-randomly selected. But assuming theuser would like to select a particular Style, that is the only inputpreferably needed for the present embodiment to begin song generation.

[0139] Before moving into the actual generation process itself, it isimportant to note that preferably implicit in the user's Style selectioncan be a Style and a SubStyle. That is, in certain embodiments of thepresent invention, a Style is a category made up of similar SubStyles.In these cases, when the user selects a Style, the present embodimentwill preferably pseudo-randomly select from an assortment of SubStyles.Additionally, it is preferably possible for the user to select thespecific SubStyle instead, for greater control. In these particularembodiments, preferably whether the user selects a Style or a SubStyle,the result preferably is that both a Style and a SubStyle can be used asinputs to the song generation routines. When the user selects aSubStyle, the Style preferably is implicitly available. When the userselects a Style, the SubStyle preferably is pseudo-randomly selected. Inthese cases, both parameters are available to be used during the songgeneration process to allow additional variations in the final song.

[0140] As shown in FIG. 15, the Song is preferably comprised of a seriesof Parts. Each part preferably might be an intro, theme, chorus, bridge,ending, etc.; and different parts preferably can be repeated or returnedto later in a song. For example, one series of parts might be: intro,theme, chorus, theme, chorus, theme, chorus, end. Certain Stylespreferably may have special types of parts, and other Styles preferablymay only use a subset of the available parts. This depends on thedesired characteristics for a particular Style or SubStyle. For example,a ‘cool’ Style may not use a bridge part. Additionally, certain Stylesthat have a generally faster tempo preferably can use avirtually-doubled part size by simply doubling each part (i.e., intro,theme, theme, chorus, chorus, theme, theme, chorus, chorus, etc.).

[0141] Also, in certain cases, the user experience preferably maybenefit from having the display updated for a particular Part. Forexample, an indication of the current position within the overall lengthof the song may be helpful to a user. Another example is to alert theuser during the ending part that the song is about to end. Such an alertpreferably might involve flashing a message (i.e., ‘Ending’) on somepart of the display, and preferably will remind the user that they needto save the song now if they want it saved.

[0142] Another optimization at this level is preferably to allow changesmade by the user during the interactive generation of a song to be savedon a part-by-part basis. This would allow the user to make a change toan instrument type, effect, volume, or filter, etc., and have thatrevised characteristic preferably be used every time that part is used.As an example, this would mean that once a user made some change(s) to achorus, every subsequent occurrence of the chorus would contain thatmodified characteristic. Following this particular example, the otherparts of the song would contain a default characteristic. Alternatively,the characteristic modifications preferably could either be applied tomultiple parts, or preferably be saved in real time throughout thelength of the song, as discussed further below.

[0143] Each Part preferably can be a different length, and preferablycan be comprised of a series of SubParts. One aspect of a preferredembodiment involves the SubPart level disclosed in FIG. 15, but the useof the SubPart level is optional, in that the Part structure can becomprised directly by Sequences without the intervening SubPart level.

[0144] In certain embodiments, where a SubPart layer is implemented,each SubPart preferably can be of a different size. Such an approach canenhance the feel of the resulting musical composition, as it affords adegree of variety to the Parts.

[0145] Each SubPart preferably is comprised of a series of Sequences(SEQs). In keeping with the previous comment regarding the relationshipbetween consistent sizing and flexibility of rule applications, each SEQpreferably can be the same length and time signature. In the example ofFIG. 15, each SEQ is two bars long with a 4/4 time signature. Of course,these can be adjusted in certain variations of the invention, but inthis example, this arrangement works well, because it allows us toillustrate how we can hold notes across a measure boundary. Typically,it might be advantageous to lengthen the size of the SEQs (as well asthe RPs to be discussed hereinafter) to allow greater diversity in themusical outcome. Such a variation is certainly within the scope of thepresent discussion, as well as FIG. 15.

[0146] Following the example of FIG. 15, each SEQ preferably consist ofmultiple Real Patterns (RPs) in parallel. Generally, it is useful tohave 1 RP for each type of instrument. In this case, a type ofinstrument preferably corresponds to a single lane of the I-Way userinterface (i.e., drums, bass, riff, etc.). RP data preferably is actualnote data; generally, information at this level preferably would not betransposed unless through user interaction, and even then suchinteraction preferably would likely apply to multiple instruments. Ofcourse this is a user interface decision, and is not a limitation to theembodiments discussed here.

[0147] In this case, the multiple RPs preferably are merged together tocomprise the SEQ. As will be recognized by those skilled in the art,this is analogous to the way a state-of-the-art MIDI sequencer mergesmultiple sets of MIDI Type 1 information into MIDI Type 0 file.

[0148] Further background detail on this can be found in the “GeneralMIDI Level 2 Specification” (available from the MIDI Manufacturer'sAssociation) which is hereby incorporated by reference.

[0149] One reason for allowing multiple RPs in parallel to define a SEQ,is that at certain times, certain lanes on the I-Way may benefit fromthe use of multiple RPs. This is because it may be desirable to vary thecharacteristics of a particular piece of the music at different timesduring a song. For example, the lead preferably may be different duringthe chorus and the solo. In this case it may be desirable to vary theinstrument type, group, filtering, reverb, volume, etc., and suchvariations can be enacted through the use of multiple RPs. Additionally,this method can be used to add/remove instruments in the course of play.Of course, this is not the only way to implement such variations, and itis not the only use for multiple RPs.

[0150] Following the example of FIG. 15, each RP preferably is comprisedof two bars, labeled RPx and RPy. Such a two bar structure is usefulbecause it preferably allows some variations in MIDI information (chordchanges, sustain, etc.) across the internal bar boundary. Such variationcan provide the effect of musical variation without adding thecomplexity of having chordal changes occur inside a bar, or having notessustained among multiple RPs.

[0151] Generally, it is cumbersome to allow notes to be held overmultiple RPs. This is partly because of the characteristics of MIDI, inthat to hold a note you need to mask out the Note Off command at the endof a pattern, and then mask out the Note On command at the beginning ofthe next pattern. Also, maintaining the same note across patternboundaries is a concern when you switch chords, because the end of apattern preferably is an opportunity to cycle through the chordprogression, and you need to make sure that the old note being sustainedis compatible with the new chord. The generation and merging of chordprogression information preferably occurs in parallel with theactivities of the present discussion, and shall be discussed below inmore detail. While is considered undesirable to hold notes acrosspatterns, there are exceptions.

[0152] One example of a potentially useful time to have open notesacross multiple patterns is during Techno Styles when a long MIDI eventis filtered over several patterns, herein called a ‘pad’. One way tohandle this example, is to use a pad sequence indicator flag to check ifthe current SEQ is the beginning, in the middle, or the end of a pad.Then the MIDI events in the pad track can be modified accordingly sothat there will be no MIDI Note Offs for a pad at the beginning, no MIDINote Ons at the beginning of subsequent RPs, and the proper MIDI NoteOffs at the end.

[0153] Continuing our discussion of FIG. 15, RPs preferably arecomprised of Virtual Patterns (VPs) that have had musical rules appliedto them. Musical rules are part of the generation and merging of chordprogression information that will be discussed in more detail below. AVP can be generally thought of as the rhythm of a corresponding RP,along with some general pitch information. Preferably, musical rules areapplied to the VP, and the result is the RP. Musical rules are discussedin more detail below.

[0154] A VP preferably can be considered as a series of Blocks. In theexample of FIG. 15, each Block has two dimensions: Blockd and Blockfx,but this is but one possible variation. In this example, Blockdcorresponds to the data of the block, and Blockfx corresponds to effectsthat are applied to the data (i.e., volume, filtering, etc.). In thisexample, the Blockd information can be thought of as individual rhythmicpattern information blocks selected from a variety of possible rhythmicblocks (certain desirable approaches to create such a variety ofpossible rhythmic blocks, and the corresponding selection thereof increating a VP, is discussed in greater detail later in this disclosure,with reference to FIGS. 22 and 23).

[0155] The Blockfx dimension described in FIG. 15 is an optional way toadd certain preferably characteristics to the Blockd information. Forexample, in addition to volume or filtering information mentioned above,the Blockd dimension preferably can be used for allocation ordistribution of musical information predictors, discussed in more detailbelow as Virtual Note/Controller (VNC) information. However, the Blockfxdimension is optional, and the Blockd information can be processedindependently of such volume or filtering information, to great success.

[0156] Assuming the example presented earlier wherein the time signatureis 4/4 and the RP is two bars, all Blocks in a pattern preferably mustadd up to 8 quarter notes in duration. In this example, assuming nBlocks in a particular RP, the duration in quarter notes of each Blockin the corresponding VP would be between 1 and (8−{n−1 }). While thisexample describes 4/4 time with a quarter note being the basic unit oflength for a Block, simple variations to this example preferably wouldinclude alternate time signatures, and alternate basic units for theBlock (i.e., 13/16 time signature and 32^(nd) note, respectively, etc.).

[0157] Getting at the bottom of FIG. 15 we see an optionalimplementation of SubBlocks (SBs). Such an implementation couldpreferably be used, for example, for the drum lane of the I-Way duringcertain Styles, where it might be desirable to have separate SBs for thebass drum, cymbal, snare, etc. A further optimization of thisimplementation of the present embodiment would be to have the SB levelof the drum lane preferably comprise directly the VP of the drum lane.Such an arrangement preferably would effectively remove the complexityof having a separate Blockfx for each individual SB of the drum lane. Anexample of where such an optimization might be useful when implementingthe present invention is in an environment with limited resources, or anenvironment where having separate effects for separate parts of thedrums (snare, bass drum, etc.) is not otherwise desirable.

[0158] Additionally, in some applications of the present invention, itmay be desirable to enable certain levels in FIG. 15 to be bypassed. Insuch cases, this would preferably allow a user to input real patterndata in the form of actual note events (e.g., in real time during a songvia a MIDI instrument as an input). Further, with the use of a companionPC software application (and a connection to the PC), in certainembodiments it is preferable to allow users to input their own MIDIpatterns for use as Block data.

[0159] Various examples of preferred embodiments of the Music Rules usedin the creation of a Song of the present invention will now bedescribed.

[0160]FIG. 16 is a flow diagram depicting a general overview of apreferred approach to generating music in the context of the presentinvention. Starting at step 1, a style of music and a selectedinstrument are defined or loaded. Once the style of music and the typeof instrument are known, the algorithm can apply Block rules to developindividual virtual pattern sub-blocks (e.g., those shown in FIG. 22). Incertain alternative embodiments, the individual virtual patternsub-blocks preferably are selected from a list or other data structure.Once the sub-blocks are available (e.g., from a list or from a blockrule algorithm) they are processed into a Virtual Pattern (VP) at step2. At this point in this example, a VP preferably is not music, althoughit does contain rhythmic information, and certain other embedded musicalcharacteristics. At step 3, using the embedded musical characteristicsof the VP data structure, musical rules preferably are applied to the VPto add more musicality to the pattern, and the result preferablycontains both the rhythmic information of the VP, as well as actualmusical information. At step 4 a tonic is preferably applied to theoutput from step 3, in that each measure preferably is musicallytransposed according to a tonic algorithm to impart a chordalprogression to the data structures. Then at step 5, a mode preferably isapplied that makes subtle changes to the musical information to outputmusic information preferably set to a particular musical mode. Then, atstep 6, a key preferably is applied to the data structure to allow keychanges, and/or key consistency among various song components. Finally,at step 7, a global pitch adjustment preferably can be applied to thedata structure, along with the rest of the song components, to allowreal time pitch/tempo shifting during song play.

[0161] This process of applying various musical rules to generate a RPpreferably can be a part of the overall song generation processmentioned above in connection with FIG. 15. Before going through thesteps described in FIG. 16 in more detail, a discussion of the embeddedcharacteristics mentioned above, as well as some mention of tonic andkey theory will be helpful.

[0162] Bearing in mind that the MIDI Specification offers a concise wayto digitally represent music, and that one significant destination ofthe output data from the presently discussed musical rules is the MIDIdigital signal processor, we have found it advantageous to use a dataformat that has some similarities with the MIDI language. In thediscussion that follows, we go through the steps of FIG. 16 in detail,with some examples of the data that can be used at each step. While thedescribed data format is similar to MIDI, it is important to understandthe differences. Basically, the present discussion describes how weembed additional context-specific meaning in an otherwise MIDI compliantdata stream. During processing at each of the steps in FIG. 16, elementsof this embedded meaning preferably is extracted, and the streampreferably is modified in some musical way accordingly. Thus, one way toconsider this process is that at each step, our stream becomes closer tothe actual MIDI stream that is played by the MIDI DSP (this aspect isaddressed in more detail below with reference to FIG. 21).

[0163] In the present example it is considered advantageous to breakdown the rhythmic and musical information involved in the music intoVirtual Notes and/or Controllers (VNC). In the example of FIG. 17, wehave provided several examples of VNCs that we have found to be useful.Basically, these VNCs represent our way of breaking down the musicalrules of a particular genre into simplified mechanisms that can be usedby an algorithm preferably along with a certain random aspect togenerate new music that mimic the characteristics and variety of otheroriginal music in the genre. Depending on the Style of music, differenttypes of VNCs will be useful. The list in FIG. 17 is simply to provide afew examples that will be discussed later in more detail.

[0164] In an important feature of this aspect of the present inventionis that we have embedded control information for the music generationalgorithm into the basic blocks of rhythmic data drawn upon by thealgorithm. We have done this in a preferably very efficient manner thatallows variety, upgradeability, and complexity in both the algorithm andthe final musical output. A key aspect of this is that we preferably usea MIDI-type format to represent the basic blocks of rhythmic data, thusenabling duration, volume, timing, etc. Furthermore, we preferably canuse the otherwise moot portions of the MIDI-type format of these basicblocks to embed the VNC data that informs the algorithm how to go aboutcreating a part of the music. As an example, we preferably can use thepitch of each MIDI-type event in these basic sub-blocks of rhythmic datato indicate to the algorithm what VNC to invoke in association with thatMIDI-type event. Thus, as this rhythmic data is accessed by thealgorithm, the pitch-type data preferably is recognized as a particularVNC, and replaced by actual pitch information corresponding to the VNCfunction. FIG. 17 shows, in the first column, examples of such embeddedvalues, and in the second and third columns, examples of recognized VNCnomenclature, and potential pitch information associated therewith.

[0165] In the example of FIG. 17, the fundamental type of VNC preferablyis the Base Note. This can be considered in certain musical styles asthe cornerstone of the melody, except, for example, when these notes arerelatively short notes in a run. This is why rhythm exists in a VP toprovide context to the VNCs. Example values of the Base Note are C, E, Gor B. Which value is finally used preferably depends on a pseudo-randomseed as part of an algorithm. We find that in these examples, thesevalues provide pretty good music for the genres we have studied so far.The Magic Notes preferably can have the values indicated in FIG. 17(assuming a diatonic scale is used), and these values are preferablyrelative to the preceding Base Note. Unlike a Base Note, Magic Notespreferably are useful at providing a note that does not strongly impactthe melody. For example, the algorithm will see that the next note to begenerated is a Magic Note 1, and it will use the Pseudo Random NumberSeed to predictably select one of the possible values: +1, 1, +2, −2.The predictably-selected value preferably will be used to mathematicallyadjust the value from the preceding Base Note to preferably result in anote value. Following this example, if the preceding Base Note was a C2,and the result of the algorithm is to select a +1, then the Magic Notevalue is a D2. Note that preferably the only difference between MagicNote 0 and 1 is that Magic Note 0 can have a value of 0. Thus, the useof Magic Note 0 will occasionally result in a note that is the samevalue as the preceding Base Note. This is an example of a way toinfluence the sound of a particular Style in relatively subtle ways.

[0166] In the discussion above, by ‘predictably-selected’ we refer tothe process of pseudo-randomly selecting a result based on a seed value.If the seed value is the same, then the result preferably will be thesame. This is one way (though not the only way) to enablereproducibility. Further discussion of these pseudo random and seedissues is provided elsewhere in the present specification.

[0167] Continuing with FIG. 17, a High Note preferably simply adds anoctave to the preceding Base Note, and is useful to make a big change inthe melody. What is interesting here is that multiple VNCs preferablycan occur in between the previous Base Note and the High Note, and thisis a way to allow a musical phrase run to a tonic note, corresponding toan earlier Base Note. Obviously, this VNC is very useful, as it againpreferably enables the structure of music to exist before the actualmusic itself is written. The algorithm preferably does not know what thefinal key, or mode will be at this point, but the octave and tonicpreferably are available.

[0168] Similar to the Magic Note, the Harmonic Note VNC preferablyallows the algorithm to pseudo-randomly select a harmonic from a set ofpossible harmonics. This capability is useful when there are multiplenotes sounding at the same time in a chord. When this VNC is used, itpreferably can result in any of the relative harmonics described in FIG.17. These values are only examples of possible values, and ones that wefind particularly useful for the types of music we have addressed.

[0169] Last Note is a VNC that is very similar to the Base Note, exceptthat it preferably only contains a subset of the possible values. Thisis because, as we understand musical phrasing for the types of music weaddress, the final note preferably is particularly important, andgenerally sounds best when it has a relative value of C or G (bearing inmind that in this example, all the notes preferably can subsequently betransposed up or down through additional steps). As with all the VNCs,the precise note that might be played for this value preferably dependson the Mode and Key applied subsequently, as well as general pitchshifting available to the user. However, in the music we address, wefind this to be a useful way to add subtlety to the music, that providesa variety of possible outcomes.

[0170] One Before Last Note is a VNC that preferably immediatelyprecedes the Last Note. Again, this is because we have found that thelast two notes, and the harmonic interval between them, are important tothe final effect of a piece, and accordingly, we find it advantageouswith the Final Notes of C and G to use One Before Last Notes of E, G, orB. These values can be adapted for other Styles of music, and onlyrepresent an example of how the VNC structure can be effectivelyutilized.

[0171] The last example VNC in FIG. 17 is the ALC controller. This isone example of how certain musical non-pitch concepts can preferably beemployed using a MIDI controller. In this example, the ALC controllercan be thought of as a prefix which modifies the meaning of immediatelyfollowing notes. The ALC controller can be used to indicate that thenext note is to be treated in a special manner, for example, to setup achord. In this example, you can use a particular predefined value forthe ALC controller to precede a sequence of a fixed note with additionalharmonic notes. Similar to the Magic Note VNC discussed above, theHarmonic Notes following a ALC controller preferably allow the algorithmto pseudo-randomly select a harmonic from a set of possible harmonics.This capability is useful when there are multiple notes sounding at thesame time in a chord. When this VNC is used, it preferably can result inany of the relative harmonics described in FIG. 17. These values areonly examples of possible values, and ones that have been foundparticularly useful for the types of music addressed up to the timehereof. Another example use of the ALC controller is to setup fixednotes. In this case, preferably one follows the appropriate ALCcontroller with Fixed Note values for any desired actual note value.This approach is useful in many instances to have a more carefullylimited song output where a particular interval between notes in thedesired music can be achieved. Additionally, playing well-known phrasesor sequences preferably is possible with this use of the ALC controller.One preferably could encode portions of an entire song this way to havea piece that closely resembles an existing musical piece. In thisexample, one preferably could have certain parts of the music stillinteractively generated to enable a song to sound just like an existingsong (in melody, for example), yet preferably still allow other parts tobe different (like bass or drums, for example).

[0172] In this manner, you can setup the resulting chord because the ALCvalue preferably will alert the software routine that is processing allof the VNCs to let it know that the following note is to be the basis ofa chord, and that the next number of harmonic notes will be played atthe same as the basis note, resulting in a chord being played at once.This example shows one way that this can be done effectively. Othervalues of VNC controllers preferably can be used to perform similarmusical functions.

[0173] It is important to note that an additional variation canpreferably be implemented that addresses the natural range, orTessitura, of a particular instrument type. While the software algorithmpreferably is taking the VNCs mentioned above and selecting real values,the real pitch value preferably can be compared to the real naturalrange of the instrument type, and the value of subsequent VNC outcomespreferably can be inverted accordingly. For example, if the Base Note ofa given pattern is near the top of the range for a bass instrumentTessitura, any subsequent Magic Notes that end up returning a positivenumber can be inverted to shift the note to be below the preceding BaseNote. This is a particular optimization that adds subtlety and depth tothe outcome, as it preferably incorporates the natural range limitationsof particular instrument types.

[0174] As a simplified example of Tessitura, FIG. 18 depicts therelative optimal ranges of particular instrument types. In the presentcontext, the Tessitura of an instrument preferably is the range at whichit sounds optimal. Certain sounds in the MIDI sound bank preferably areoptimized for particular ranges. If you select a bass guitar sound andplay very high pitched notes, the result may not be very good. Forhigher pitches, a guitar or violin sound may work better. Accordingly,when the musical rule algorithm is processing VNCs, the Tessitura of theselected instrument type preferably can play a role in the outcome ofthe real note value generated. If the selected instrument is approachingthe top edge of its' Tessitura, and the musical rule routine comesacross a High Note VNC, then the algorithm preferably can be designed tobump the generated pitch down an octave or two. Similarly, other VNCscan be processed with deference to the Tessitura of the selectedinstrument.

[0175]FIG. 19 describes another aspect of this musical process. MusicalKey changes preferably can be encoded as offsets. By this we mean thatgiven a Key of X, the Key can be shifted up or down by inserting anoffset. Such an offset preferably will transpose everything by the exactvalue to result in a musical phrase that is exactly as it was, but nowin a different Key. FIG. 19 has as examples the Keys of A, C, D, and G.A Key of C preferably would have an offset of 0, A an offset of −3, D anoffset of +2, and G an offset of +8. As will be appreciated by a studentof Musical Theory, the offset preferably corresponds closely with anumber of half steps in an interval. The interval between C and G is 8half steps. Other Keys can be similarly achieved.

[0176] The use of halfsteps for encoding Keys is advantageous because,as mentioned previously, the MIDI language format uses whole numbers todelineate musical pitches, with each whole number value incrementallycorresponding to a half step pitch value. Other means of providing anoffset value to indicate Keys can be applied, but in our experience, theuse of half steps is particularly useful in this implementation becauseof we are preferably using a MIDI DSP, and so the output of the MusicalRules preferably will be at least partly MIDI based.

[0177]FIG. 20 describes another Musical Rule that preferably is part ofthe overall process: Mode application. As can be appreciated by astudent of Musical Theory, assuming the mode is described in terms ofsharps (as opposed to flats) the particular placement of sharps is alarge part of what gives each musical phrase its own identity. In FIG.20 we give the example of a Lydian Mode, with Ascending or Descendingversions preferably available. Other well established musical modesexist (Ionian, Dorian, Hypodorian, Phrygian, Hypophrygian, Hypolydian,Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian, etc.) and we only use Lydian here in theinterests of space. Clearly, the present invention can involve othermodes, with corresponding values as those in FIG. 20. In cases where amode is desired that is not a conventional western mode, it ispreferable to upgrade or alter the soundbank (e.g., located in Flash 49)so that other musical intervals are possible.

[0178]FIG. 20 begins with a list of all preferably available notes inthe genre of music that we are addressing. That is followed by thecorresponding preferably natural note values that we term Natural Mode.The values of notes in the Natural Mode preferably correspond to the AllNotes row of notes without the sharps (again assuming that in thepresent discussion we are defining our modes in terms of sharps, and notflats). Then the Lydian mode preferably is listed, which does not allowF naturals. In order to decide whether an F natural is to be raised tothe next available pitch of F sharp, or lowered to the next availablepitch of E, an algorithm preferably will decide between an ascending ordescending transposition. Accordingly, a descendingly transposed Fnatural preferably will be changed to an E, and an ascendinglytransposed F natural preferably will be transposed to a F sharp. Giventhat sharps vary from the Natural Mode, the use of an ascending LydianMode results in music that has more F sharps, and is thus moreaggressively Lydian. This general concept is evident in other Modes aswell, with ascending transpositions typically being more aggressive thandescending transpositions.

[0179] At this point we will go through a detailed example of theMusical Rule portion of the algorithm, using FIG. 21 as the example.This discussion will incorporate the earlier discussions of thepreceding figures, to demonstrate how a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention preferably incorporates them.

[0180]FIG. 21 depicts the data as it preferably exists between each ofthe numbered steps 2-6 in FIG. 16. The Musical Notation is representedto clarify the overall concept, as well as to indicate a simplifiedexample of the preferable format the data can take in the softwareroutine.

[0181] Beginning at the top row, there is a collection of predefined VPSub-Blocks that preferably can advantageously be indexed by music Styleand/or length. These blocks preferably are of variable sizes andpreferably are stored in a hexadecimal format corresponding to thenotation of pitch (recognizing that in certain embodiments the pitchinformation of a VP does not represent actual pitch characteristics, butVNC data as discussed above), velocity, and duration of a MIDI file (thepreferable collection of predefined VP-Sub-Blocks is discussed in moredetail below with reference to FIGS. 22-23). As shown in the top row ofFIG. 21, Rests preferably are also available in this collection ofavailable patterns. This collection of indexed Sub-Blocks preferably isused by a software routine to construct Virtual Patterns (VPs). Asmentioned earlier, certain alternative embodiments preferably involveusing algorithmic block rules to generate the collection of Sub-Blocks.Such algorithmic rules preferably are configured to accept the musicstyle and instrument type as inputs to then output a collection ofSub-Blocks that are appropriate for that style/instrument combination.Whether the Sub-Blocks are selected from predefined collection, orgenerated on the fly with an algorithm, they preferably are organizedinto a VP. VPs preferably are a collection of Sub-Blocks that have beenassembled by the routine into preferably consistently-sized groupings.

[0182] After step 2 of FIG. 16 is applied, we preferably have a VP. Thesecond row of FIG. 21 (VP) depicts an example VP that is 2 bars long,and composed of the following sequence: Base Note, Magic Note 1, MagicNote 0, High Note, and another Base Note. Note that at this time therhythm of the part preferably is in place, and the value of each note isconceptually the embedded VNC information. If the VP is played at thispoint, the output would likely not be pleasing. The right column of row2 depicts the format that this data preferably is stored in; as isdiscussed elsewhere in this disclosure, this format is remarkablesimilar to MIDI format data, with one exception being that the VNCinformation preferably is implicitly embedded in the data stream.

[0183] The third row (NCP) depicts the same data after step 3 of FIG. 16is applied. The VNCs embedded in the VP from row 2 preferably have beeninterpreted by the routine with the help of pseudo-random selectionsfrom the possible VNC values. Thus, for the first Base Note in row 2, wehave a real note value of E in row 3, and for the Magic Note Type 1 ofrow 2 we have decremented the previous Base Note two half steps to a Din row 3. For the Magic Note Type 0 we have adjusted the previous valueby 0, resulting in another D. This goes on through the VP, and theresult is clear in row 3. At this point, we preferably have the basicmusical information that will end up in the song, except that the Chordand Mode transpositions preferably have not yet been made.

[0184] The fourth row in FIG. 21 (PwT) depicts the data stream afterstep 4 of FIG. 16 is applied. As can be seen, the NCP of row 3 has beentransposed down. This is to allow the particular pattern beingconstructed to preferably conform to a particular Tonic note, thusplacing it into a suitable chord preferably to match the other elementsof the musical piece. This feature allows different portions of themelody preferably to conform to different tonic notes, thus preferablyproceeding through a chord progression, while ensuring that allinstruments preferably conform to the same chord progression.

[0185] Row 5 of FIG. 21 (PwTM) takes the pattern of notes and preferablyconforms it to a particular Mode (e.g., Ionian, Dorian, Hypodorian,Phrygian, Hypophrygian, Lydian, Hypolydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian,Locrian, etc.) preferably as well as a particular Mode type (likedescending, ascending, etc.). A more complete list of musical modes andmode types has been prepared by Manuel Op de Coul (available on theworld wide web at: www.xs4all.nl/˜huygensf/doc/modename.html) and ishereby incorporated herein by reference. The conformation of the patternof notes to a particular Mode preferably is done in a manner consistentwith FIG. 20, discussed above. In the example of FIG. 21, the resultingmusical phrase is very similar to that of Row 4, except the notabledifference of the C sharp being reduced to a C. This is because there isno such C sharp in the Lydian mode, and so it's removal is preferablyrequired at this step. If the Modal adjustment were using the Lydianascending mode, which is more aggressively ascending because there aremore sharps, this C sharp would have preferably ‘rounded up’ to the nextLydian note of D. But, since in this example we are using a Lydiandescending mode, the C sharp is preferably ‘rounded-down’ to a C.

[0186] The final row of FIG. 21 (RP) indicates the point when themusical phrase preferably can be globally transposed up or down thescale. This is advantageous in the case where a global pitch adjustmentfeature is desired to preferably allow the user to quickly and easilyshift the pitch of a song up or down (such as is discussed in an earlierexample of the Pitch/Tempo key used in combination with the Up/Downkeys). The example of Row 6 shows a transposition of 2 half steps. Aswith all the rows of this figure, this can be seen in the musicalnotation, as well as the software notation, where the third pair ofnumbers can be seen to increment by a value of two, for each line.

[0187] There are instances where certain elements of the musicpreferably do not need the musical rules discussed above to be invoked.For example, drum tracks preferably do not typically relate to Mode orKey, and thus preferably do not need to be transposed. Additionally,many instrument types such as drums, and MIDI effects, preferably arenot arranged in the MIDI sound bank in a series of pitches, but in aseries of sounds that may or may not resemble each other. In the exampleof drums, the sound corresponding to C sharp may be a snare drum sound,and C may be a bass drum sound. This means that in certain cases,different levels of the process discussed above in reference to FIG. 21preferably may be advantageously bypassed in these cases.

[0188] The collection of sub-blocks discussed above, from which VPspreferably are constructed, can be better understood in light of FIGS.22 and 23.

[0189]FIG. 22 depicts an example of the rhythmic variations thatpreferably are possible, based on example durations of 1 or 2 quarternotes. The first row indicates the 4 possible variations, given a fewbasic conditions: that the eighth note is the smallest unit, the lengthis 1 quarter note, and that all full rests are indicated separately as‘empty’. The second row in FIG. 22 lists the possible variations, givensimilar variations: that the eighth note is the smallest unit, that anyvariations in the first row are not included, and that the length is 2quarter notes.

[0190] One way to create a set of rhythmic variations such as those inFIG. 22 preferably is to put the variation data into MIDI event format.This approach preferably involves using a MIDI sequencer software tool(such as Sonar from Cakewalk, and Cubase from Steinberg) to generate therhythmic blocks. This preferably allows the use of a variety of inputmethods (e.g., a keyboard controller, a MIDI wind controller, a MIDIguitar controller, etc.), and further preferably allows the intuitivecopying, pasting, quantizing, and global characteristic adjustments(e.g., selecting multiple events and adjusting the pitch for all). Then,the MIDI events preferably can be exported as a MIDI file (possibly 1file for each instrument group). Finally, a software batch file programpreferably can be written to open the MIDI file and parse out thesubstantial header information, as well as any unneeded characteristicinformation (such as controller or patch information), and preferablyoutput the optimized data into a file that is suitable to include in thesource code (e.g., ASCII text tables). The use of the sequencing toolpreferably enables one to quickly generate a variety of appropriaterhythmic blocks for a given instrument type, since the vast array ofMIDI controller devices are available that can mimic the characteristicsof a particular instrument type. For example, one can use a MIDI guitarcontroller to strum in patterns for a guitar type of instrument group.

[0191] The example of FIG. 22 is simplified to convey a concept; thatall rhythmic variations covering up to two quarter notes (given theconditions discussed above) preferably can be organized very efficientlyaccording to rhythmic density. FIG. 22 teaches an advantageous way toefficiently organize the set of blocks used to construct a VP shown inFIG. 15. If the example of FIG. 22 were expanded to include additionalrows for rhythmic blocks with longer durations, given conditions such asthose described above that are consistent across the rows, then eachsubsequent row would have patterns of less density than those above it.This is because of the condition that each row does not include any ofthe variations present in rows above it, and because the duration of thepattern increases for each subsequent row. Thus, there is a directrelationship between the example shown in FIG. 22 and the relativerhythmic density of patterns used to make a VP.

[0192] Clearly, if any of the conditions described in FIG. 22 werechanged, e.g., if a sixteenth note were the smallest unit or full restswere indicated with a pattern containing a rest, then preferably thenumber of variations would be different. While the number would bedifferent, the desirable effects of organizing patterns based on thisconcept of rhythmic density would remain.

[0193] In addition to efficiency, such an approach to organizing theavailable rhythmic blocks preferably enables the use of rhythmic densityas an input to a software (e.g., algorithmic function) or hardware(e.g., state table gate array) routine. Thus, one preferably canassociate a relative rhythmic density with a particular instrument typeand use that rhythmic density, possibly in the form of a desired blocklength, preferably to obtain a corresponding rhythmic block. Thispreferably can be repeated until a VP is complete (see FIG. 15). The VPpreferably can thereby be constructed with a desired relative rhythmicdensity. This is particularly useful because it preferably allows thecreation of VPs with almost limitless variations that have rhythmiccharacteristics preferably generally corresponding to a given instrumenttype.

[0194] As will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art of MIDI,given the context of VP generation discussed herein, the rhythmicvariations shown in FIG. 22 can be represented in the form of MIDIevents. In this case, many of the available characteristics in the MIDIevents, such as pitch, velocity, aftertouch, etc., preferably might begenerically set. Then, additional functions for such characteristicspreferably can be applied to the MIDI events during the creation of VPsto impart additional subtlety to the finished music. Such functionspreferably can be fairly simple and still be effective. As one example,for a given Style of music (e.g., rock), the velocity of any MIDI eventsin the VP that fall on a particular location in the measure (e.g., thedownbeat) can be modestly increased. Similarly, in a music Style thatgenerally has a rhythmic swing feel, where one or more of the beats in ameasure may be slightly retarded or advances, the corresponding MIDIevents in a VP preferably can be modified so as to slightly adjust thetiming information. Clearly, these types of simple functions preferablycan be selectively applied to either a given instrument type, and/or agiven musical Style.

[0195] Similar to the concept of using relative rhythmic density as adeterministic characteristic in creating algorithmic music, FIG. 23describes a concept of relative mobility of note pitch. As shown in FIG.23, the vertical axis indicates pitch change, and the horizontal axisindicates time. Two example types of melody streams are depicted; thetop having a fluid movement through a variety of pitches, and the bottomhaving rather abrupt, discrete changes among a fewer number of pitches.Thus, the melody on the top of FIG. 23 has a higher relative mobility ofnote pitch. As can be appreciated by the previous discussion of VNCs,the melody example on the top preferably would generally require moreMagic Notes to imitate, and the melody example on the bottom preferablywould generally require more Base Notes and High Notes to imitate.

[0196] This concept preferably applies to most instrument types in agiven musical Style as well, in that certain instruments have a higherrelative mobility of note pitch than others. As an example, a bassguitar in a rock Style can be thought of as having a lower relativemobility of note pitch compared to a guitar in the same Style. Therelationship between relative mobility of note pitch and relevant VNCtype can be very helpful in creating the collection of predefinedsub-blocks discussed above, in that it serves as a guide in thedetermination of actual VNC for each rhythmic pattern. When one wants tocreate a set of rhythmic building blocks for use in a particular musicalStyle and/or instrument type, it is advantageous to consider/determinethe desired relative mobility of note pitch, and allocate VNC typesaccordingly.

[0197] As an additional variation, and in keeping with the discussionabove regarding relative rhythmic density, an architecture thatconstructs a VP for a given instrument type and/or musical Stylepreferably can greatly benefit from a software (e.g., algorithmicfunction) or hardware (e.g., state table gate array) routine relating torelative mobility of note pitch. As an example, a particular music Styleand/or instrument type can be assigned a relative rhythmic densityvalue, and such a value can be used to influence the allocation ordistribution of VNC types during the generation of a VP.

[0198] The use of relative rhythmic density and relative mobility ofnote pitch in the present context preferably provides a way to generateVPs that closely mimic the aesthetic subtleties of ‘real’human-generated music. This is because it is a way of preferablyquantifying certain aspects of the musical components of such ‘real’music so that it preferably can be mimicked with a computer system, asdisclosed herein. Another variation and benefit of such an approach isthat these characteristics preferably are easily quantified asparameters that can be changeable by the user. Thus a given musicalStyle, and/or a given instrument type, preferably can have a relativemobility of note pitch parameter (and/or a relative rhythmic densityparameter) as a changeable characteristic. Accordingly, the userpreferably could adjust such a parameter during the songplayback/generation and have another level of control over the musicaloutcome.

[0199] Various examples of preferred embodiments for the block creationaspects of the present invention will now be described.

[0200] Continuing the example presented in FIG. 15, wherein a RPpreferably is 2 bars, and a VP preferably is comprised of 8 quarternotes (QN), the pattern structure creation example of FIG. 24 assumesthat the particular song generation implementation preferably involves aVP length of 8 QN, a 2 bar RP, and variably-sized Blocks. While thoseskilled in the art will appreciate the considerable number of advantagesarising from the architecture of this preferred embodiment, they willadditionally appreciate that various adaptations and modifications tothese embodiments can be configured without departing from the spiritand scope of the invention.

[0201] As shown in FIG. 24, one preferred embodiment of the presentinvention involves the creation of a pattern structure. This patternstructure preferably is comprised of the information needed to selectthe actual Blocks, which in many ways are the fundamental unit of thesong generation. This example of pattern structure creation involvesdetermining each Block's duration (in a given VP), as well as the groupof instruments from which the Block will be selected. Following thisstep, and discussed below, this information preferably is used todirectly generate the Blocks themselves.

[0202] Patt_Info is a routine that preferably can be used to generatethe pattern structure information as part of the creation of aparticular VP from Blocks.

[0203] Shift is a multiplier that preferably can be used in a variety ofways to add variation to the composed VP; for example, it could be abinary state that allows different Block variations based on which ofthe 2 bars in the RP that a particular Block is in. Other uses of aShift multiplier can easily be applied that would provide similarvariety to the overall song structure.

[0204] Num_Types is the number of instruments, and Num_Sub_Drums is thenumber of individual drums that make up the drum instrument. This latterpoint is a preferable variation that allows an enhanced layer ofinstrument selection, and it can be applied to other contexts other thanthe drum instrument. Conversely, this variation is not at all necessaryto the present invention, or even the present embodiment.

[0205] Block_Ind is the Block index, FX_No is for any effects numberinformation. Combi_No is an index that preferably points to a locationin a table called Comb_Index_List. This table preferably is the size ofthe number of Styles multiplied by the number of instrument types; eachentry preferably contains: SubStyle_Mask to determine if the particularentry is suitable for the present SubStyle, Combi_Index to determine theBlock length, and Group_Index to determine the group of individual MIDIpatches (and related information) from which to determine the Block.

[0206] Combi_Index preferably points to a table called Style_Type_Combithat preferably contains multiple sets of Block sizes. Each Block_Sizepreferably is a set of Block sizes that add up to the length of the SEQ.An example SEQ length is 8 QN.

[0207] Group_Index preferably points to a table called Style_Group thatpreferably contains sets of MIDI-type information for each group ofStyles, preferably organized by MIDI Bank. PC refers to Patch ChangeMIDI information, P refers to variably sized MIDI parameters for a givenPatch, and GS stands for Group Size. GS for group 1 preferably wouldindicate how many instruments are defined for group 1.

[0208] One preferable optimization of the execution of this step is toincorporate a pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) that preferably willselect a particular patch configuration from the group identified by GS.Then, as the user elects to change the instrument within a particularSubStyle, and within a particular lane, another set of patch informationpreferably is selected from the group identified by GS. This use of aPRNG preferably can also be incorporated in the auto-generation of asong, where, at different times, the instrument preferably can bechanged to provide variation or other characteristics to a given song,Part, SubPart, SEQ, RP, VP, etc. There are other areas in this routineprocess that preferably could benefit from the use of a PRNG function,as will be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art.

[0209] Once the Block duration and instrument patch informationpreferably are determined for a given VP, the virtual Block informationpreferably can be determined on a Block-by-Block basis, as shown in FIG.25.

[0210] Block_List preferably is a routine that can determine a virtualBlock using the Block size, and the instrument type. As shown in FIG.25, Style preferably is a pointer to a table of Virtual_Block_Datapointers that preferably are organized by Width (i.e., 1-8 QN) and Group(i.e., instrument group). Once the Start_Pointer is determined, theBlock data preferably can be obtained from a Virtual_Block_Data table.Special cases exist where the Block data may be already known; forexample, empty Blocks, repeating Blocks, etc.

[0211] Again, as discussed above in connection with the patternstructure generation, the present steps of the overall processpreferably can use an optional PRNG routine to provide additionalvariety to the Block. Another fairly straightforward extension of thisexample is to use ‘stuffing’ (i.e.; duplicate entries in a particulartable) preferably to provide a simple means of weighting the result. Bythis we refer to the ability to influence the particular Block data thatis selected from the Virtual_Block_Data table preferably by insertingvarious duplicate entries. This concept of stuffing can easily beapplied to other tables discussed elsewhere in this specification, andother means of weighting the results for each table lookup that arecommonly known in the art can be easily applied here without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention.

[0212] Additionally, as one of ordinary skill in the art willappreciate, though these examples of preferred embodiments to thevarious inventive steps involve substantial reliance on tables, it wouldbe fairly easy to apply concepts of state machines, commonly known inthe art, to these steps and optimize the table architecture into onethat incorporates state machines. Such an optimization would not departfrom the spirit and scope of the present invention.

[0213] Various examples of preferred embodiments for pseudo-randomnumber generation aspects of the present invention will now bedescribed.

[0214] Some of the embodiments discussed in the present disclosurepreferably involve maximizing the limited resources of a small, portablearchitecture, preferably to obtain a complex musicgeneration/interaction device. When possible, in such embodiments (andothers), preferably it is desirable to minimize the number of separatePRNG routines. Although an application like music generation/interactionpreferably relies heavily on PRNG techniques to obtain a sense ofrealism paralleling that of similarly Styled, human-composed music, itis tremendously desirable to minimize the code overhead in the endproduct so as to allow the technology preferably to be portable, and tominimize the costs associated with the design and manufacture.Consequently, we have competing goals of minimal PRNG code/routines, andmaximal random influence on part generation.

[0215] In addition, another goal of the present technology is preferablyto allow a user to save a song in an efficient way. Rather than storinga song as an audio stream (i.e.; MP3, WMA, WAV, etc.), it is highlydesirable to save the configuration information that was used togenerate the song, so that it preferably can be re-generated in a mannerflawlessly consistent with the original. The desirability of this goalcan easily be understood, as a 5 minute MP3 file is approximately 5 MB,and the corresponding file size for an identical song, preferably usingthe present architecture, is approximately 0.5 KB, thus preferablyreduced by a factor of approximately 10,000. In certain preferredembodiments, the sound quality of a saved song is similar to aconventional compact disc (thereby demonstrably better than MP3). Inthis comparison, a 5 minute song stored on a compact disc might beapproximately 50 MB; thus the file size of a song using the presentinvention is reduced from a compact disc file by a factor ofapproximately 100,000.

[0216] Saving the configuration information itself, rather than an audiostream, preferably allows the user to pick up where they left off, inthat they can load a previously saved piece of music, and continueworking with it. Such an advantage is not easily possible with a single,combined audio stream, and to divide the audio into multiple streamswould exponentially increase the file size, and would not be realizablein the current architecture without significant trade-offs inportability and/or quality.

[0217] Additionally this aspect of the present invention preferablyenables the user to save an entire song from any point in the song. Theuser preferably can decide to save the song at the end of the song,after experiencing and interacting with the music creation. Such afeature is clearly advantageous as it affords greater flexibility andsimplicity to the user in the music creation process.

[0218] Turning now to FIG. 26, we have a diagram representing thepreferable algorithmic context for some examples of Pseudo-Random NumberGeneration (PRNG). Drum Seed (DS) is a number that preferably is used asinput to a simple PRNG routine to generate DS0-DS4. As would be apparentto one of ordinary skill in this art, the number of outputs preferablycan be varied; we use 4 here for illustrative purposes. The 4 valuesthat are output from the PRNG preferably are fed into various parts ofthe Drum Part Generation Algorithm to provide some pseudo-randomvariation to the drum part.

[0219] It is important to note that if the same seed input to the simplePRNG routine is used a plurality of times, the same list of valuespreferably will be output each time. This is because simple PRNGroutines are not random at all, as they are a part of a computing systemthat is, by its very nature, extremely repeatable and predictable. Evenif one adds some levels of complexity to a PRNG algorithm that takeadvantage of seemingly unrelated things like clocks, etc., the end usercan discern some level of predictability to the operation of the musicgeneration. As can be imagined, this is highly undesirable, as one ofthe main aspects of the device is to generate large quantities of goodmusic.

[0220] One benefit of the preferably predictable nature of simple PRNGsis that, by saving the seed values, one preferably can generateidentical results later using the same algorithm. Given the samealgorithm (or a compatible one, preferably), the seeds preferably can beprovided as inputs and preferably achieve the exact same results everytime. Further discussion of the use of seeds in the musicgeneration/interaction process is discussed elsewhere in thisspecification.

[0221] While it is a feature of the present invention to preferablyincorporate PRNG that are repeatable, there are also aspects of thepresent invention that preferably benefit from a more ‘truly-random’number generation algorithm. For purposes of clarity, we call this‘complex PRNG’. Using the example of FIGS. 26 and 27, if, on a regularbasis, the same seed input were used for both the Drum part and the Basspart, it might limit the variability of the outcome. Another example isthat, although preferably when playing a previously saved song, you wantA and A′ to always be the same, when you are generating a new song, itpreferably is highly desirable that these seed inputs be randomlydifferent. Otherwise the song generation suffers from the samerepeatability as the song playback.

[0222] One example of a complex PRNG that works within the cost/resourceconstraints we have set, is one preferably with an algorithm thatincorporates the timing of an individual user's button-presses. Forexample, from time to time in the process of generating music andproviding user interaction in that generative process, we preferably caninitialize a simple timer, and wait for a user button press. Then thevalue of that timer preferably can be incorporated into the PRNG routineto add randomness. By way of example, one can see that, if the system isrunning at or around 33 MHz, the number of clocks between any givenpoint and a user's button press is going to impart randomness to thePRNG. Another example is one preferably with an algorithm that keepstrack of the elapsed time for the main software loop to complete; such aloop will take different amounts of time to complete virtually everytime it completes one loop because it varies based on external eventssuch as user button presses, music composition variations, each of whichmay call other routines and/or timing loops or the like for variousevents or actions, etc. While it preferably is not desirable to use sucha complex PRNG in the generation of values from seeds, due torepeatability issues discussed above, it preferably can be desirable touse such a PRNG in the creation of seeds, etc., as discussed above. Asan additional example, such a complex PRNG routine can be used to timeinterval, from the moment the unit is powered up, to the moment the‘press-it-and-forget-it’ mode is invoked; providing a degree ofrandomness and variability to the selection of the first auto-play songin Home mode (discussed earlier in this disclosure). Of course, thistype of complex PRNG preferably is a variation of the present invention,and is not required to practice the invention.

[0223] One desirable aspect of the present invention involves thelimiting of choices to the end user. The various ways instruments can beplayed are limitless, and in the absence of a structure, many of thepossible ways can be unpleasant to the ear. One feature of palatablemusic is that it conforms to some sort of structure. In fact, it can beargued that the definition of creativity is expression throughstructure. Different types of music and/or instruments can havediffering structures, but the structure itself is vital to the appeal ofthe music, as it provides a framework for the listener to interpret themusic. The present invention involves several preferable aspects ofusing seed values in the generation of a piece of music. One preferableway to incorporate seeds is to use two categories of seeds in a song: 1)seeds determining/effecting the higher-level song structure, and 2)seeds determining/effecting the particular instrument parts andcharacteristics. Preferably, the first category of seeds is notuser-changeable, but is determined/effected by the Style/SubStyle andInstrument Type selections. Preferably, the second category of seeds isuser-changeable, and relates to specific patterns, melodies, effects,etc. The point in this example is that there are some aspects of themusic generation that are preferably best kept away from the user. Thisvariation allows the user to have direct access to a subset of the seedsthat are used for the music generation, and can be thought to provide astructure for the user to express through. This preferableimplementation of the present discussion of seeds enables anon-musically-trained end user to creatively make music that soundspleasurable.

[0224] Various examples of preferred embodiments for a simple datastructure (SDS) to store a song of the present invention will now bedescribed.

[0225] The use of PRNG seeds preferably enables a simple and extremelyefficient way to store a song. In one embodiment of the presentinvention, the song preferably is stored using the original set of seedsalong with a small set of parameters. The small set of parameterspreferably is for storing real time events and extraneous informationexternal to the musical rules algorithms discussed above. PRNG seedvalues preferably are used as initial inputs for the musical rulesalgorithms, preferably in a manner consistent with the PRNG discussionabove.

[0226]FIG. 28 lists some examples of the types of information in an SDS:

[0227] ‘Application Number’ is preferably used to store thefirmware/application version used to generate the data structure. Thisis particularly helpful in cases where the firmware is upgradeable, andthe SDS may be shared to multiple users. Keeping track of the version ofsoftware used to create the SDS is preferable when building incompatibility across multiple generation/variations ofsoftware/firmware.

[0228] ‘Style/SubStyle’ preferably is used to indicate the SubStyle ofmusic. This is helpful when initializing various variables and routines,to preferably alert the system that the rules associated with aparticular SubStyle will govern the song generation process.

[0229] ‘Sound Bank/Synth Type’ preferably indicates the particularsound(s) that will be used in the song. This preferably can be a way topreload the sound settings for the Midi DSP.

[0230] ‘Sample Frequency’ preferably is a setting that can be used toindicate how often samples will be played. Alternatively, thispreferably can indicate the rate at which the sample is decoded; atechnique useful for adjusting the frequency of sample playback.

[0231] ‘Sample set’ preferably is for listing all the samples that areassociated with the Style of music. Although these samples preferablymay not all be used in the saved SDS version of the song, this listpreferably allows a user to further select and play relevant samplesduring song playback.

[0232] ‘Key’ preferably is used to indicate the first key used in thesong. Preferably, one way to indicate this is with a pitch offset.

[0233] ‘Tempo’ preferably is used to indicate the start tempo of thesong. Preferably, one way to indicate this is with pulses per quarternote (PPQN) information.

[0234] ‘Instrument’ preferably is data that identifies a particularinstrument in a group of instruments. Such as an acoustic nylon stringguitar among a group of all guitar sounds. This data is preferablyindexed by instrument type.

[0235] ‘State’ preferably is data that indicates the state of aparticular instrument. Examples of states are: muted, un-muted, normal,Forced play, solo, etc.

[0236] ‘Parameter’ preferably is data that indicates values for variousinstrument parameters, such as volume, pan, timbre, etc.

[0237] ‘PRNG Seed Values’ preferably is a series of numerical valuesthat are used to initialize the pseudo-random number generation (PRNG)routines. These values preferably represent a particularly efficientmethod for storing the song by taking advantage of the inherentlypredictable nature of PRNG to enable the recreation of the entire song.This aspect of the present invention is discussed in greater detailpreviously with respect to FIGS. 26 and 27.

[0238] Through the use of these example parameters in a SDS, a user songpreferably can be efficiently stored and shared. Though the specificparameter types preferably can be varied, the use of such parameters, aswell as the PRNG Seeds discussed elsewhere in this disclosure,preferably enables all the details necessary to accurately repeat a songfrom scratch. It is expected that the use of this type of arrangementwill be advantageous in a variety of fields where music can befaithfully reproduced with a very efficient data structure.

[0239]FIG. 29 depicts a logical flow chart for a preferable generalarchitecture that could be used in combination with the SDS to practicethe present invention. This flow chart describes the big picture for apreferable software/firmware implementation, and describes in moredetail how the song preferably is efficiently and interactivelygenerated using seed values.

[0240] At the start of FIG. 29, an initial set of seed values preferablyis either loaded from a data file (e.g., SDS) or determined anew (e.g.,using the Complex PRNG approach discussed elsewhere in this disclosure).While this set of values preferably can effectively be determined/loadedfor the entire song at this point, it may be considered advantageous toonly determine/load them in sections as needed, preferably to provide adegree of randomness to a freshly generated song. Further, as discussedabove, the seed values may preferably be arranged in two categories, oneuser-changeable, and the other not. Once at least some seed valuespreferably are determined/loaded, the music for a given song partpreferably begins to be generated, and the user interface (e.g.,display, video output, force-feedback, etc.) preferably can be updatedaccordingly. At any point in this process, if a user input is detected(other than a ‘save’ command), such as a change of instrument or effect,the relevant seeds for the part of the song currently being changed bythe user preferably are updated and the generation of the music for thegiven part preferably continues. If a user input ‘save’ command isdetected, all seeds (not just the relevant seeds for the given songpart) preferably can be saved to a non-temporary storage location, suchas Flash memory, a hard drive, or some other writeable memory storagelocation that affords some degree of permanence. This arrangement isdesirable because it preferably allows a user to listen to most of asong before electing to save it in its entirety. As long as there is nouser input, the generation of music for a given song part preferablycontinues until the end of song part is detected, at which time the flowpreferably proceeds to the next song part. At this time, if necessary,the relevant seeds for the next song part preferably aredetermined/loaded. Eventually, when an end-of-song condition preferablyis detected, the song ends.

[0241] Various examples of preferred embodiments for a complex datastructure to store a song of the present invention will now bedescribed.

[0242] In another variation to the present invention, it is contemplatedthat, for purposes of saving and playing back songs, the reliance onseeds as inputs to the musical rule algorithms (see SDS discussionabove) preferably may be exchanged for the use of Complex DataStructures (CDS). In part because of it's efficiency, the seed-basedarchitecture discussed above is desirable when forward/backwardcompatibility is not an issue. However, it has some aspects that may notbe desirable, if compatibility across platforms and/or firmwarerevisions is desired. In these cases, the use of an alternativeembodiment may be desirable.

[0243] As described above, a seed preferably is input to a simple PRNGand a series of values preferably are generated that are used in thesong creation algorithm. For purposes of song save and playback, therepeatability preferably is vital. However, if the algorithm is modifiedin a subsequent version of firmware, or if other algorithms wouldbenefit from the use of the simple PRNG, while it is in the middle ofcomputing a series (e.g.; DS0-DS3 in FIG. 26), or if additional elementsare needed for subsequent music Styles, etc., that involve additionalseeds, it is possible that the repeatability and backwards-compatibilitymay be adversely impacted. This means that in certain applications ofthe present invention, preferably in order to allow future upgrades tohave significant leeway, and in order to maintainbackwards-compatibility with songs saved before the upgrade, anotherpreferably more complex data structure for saving the song is desirable.

[0244]FIG. 30 describes some example parameters to include in such aCDS. In general, the difference between this structure and the SDSexample described in FIG. 28 is that this preferably does not rely onseed values to recreate the song. Instead, this CDS preferably capturesmore of the actual data in the song, resulting in a file size that islarger than the SDS example. The use of CDS preferably is still atremendously more efficient and desirable means of saving a songcompared to an audio stream, as mentioned above in connection with theseed method. While the seed method preferably gives you a size reductionover a typical MP3 audio stream of 10,000, the CDS method preferablymight give an approximate size reduction of 1,000; for a WAV audio of100,000, the size reduction results in 10,000 (or when compared to acompact disc the size reduction is approximately 100,000). While muchlarger than the seed approach, the CDS approach is still advantageousover the audio stream methods of music storage in the prior art.

[0245] While both examples have their advantages, it may also beadvantageous to combine aspects of each into a hybrid data structure(HDS). For example, the use of some seed values in the data structure,while also incorporating many of the more complex parameters for the CDSexample, preferably can provide an appropriate balance betweencompatibility and efficiency. Depending on the application and context,the balance between these two goals preferably can be adjusted by usinga hybrid data structure that is in between the SDS of FIG. 28 and theCDS of FIG. 30.

[0246] In the example of FIG. 30, ‘Application Number’,‘Style/SubStyle’, ‘Sound Bank/Synth Type’, ‘Sample Frequency’, ‘SampleList’, ‘Key’, ‘Tempo’, ‘Instrument’, ‘State’, and ‘Parameter’ arepreferable parameters that are described above in reference to FIG. 28.

[0247] ‘Song Structure’ preferably is data that preferably lists thenumber of instrument types in the song, as well as the number andsequence of the parts in the song.

[0248] ‘Structure’ preferably is data that is indexed by part thatpreferably can include the number and sequence of the sub-parts withinthat part.

[0249] ‘Filtered Track’ preferably is a parameter that preferably can beused to hold data describing the characteristics of an effect. Forexample, it preferably can indicate a modulation type of effect with asquare wave and a particular initial value. As the effect preferably istypically connected with a particular part, this parameter maypreferably be indexed by part.

[0250] ‘Progression’ preferably is characteristic information for eachsub-part. This might include a time signature, number and sequence ofSEQs, list of instrument types that may be masked, etc.

[0251] ‘Chord’ preferably contains data corresponding to musical changesduring a sub-part. Chord vector (e.g., +2, −1, etc.), key note (e.g.,F), and progression mode (e.g., dorian ascending) data preferably arestored along with a time stamp.

[0252] ‘Pattern’ and the sub-parameters ‘Combination’, ‘FX Pattern’, and‘Blocks’, all preferably contain the actual block data and effectsinformation for each of the instruments that are used in the song. Thisdata is preferably indexed by the type of instrument.

[0253] ‘Nota Bene’ preferably is for specifying instruments or magicnotes that will be played differently each time the song is played. Thisparameter preferably allows the creation of songs that have elements ofimprovisation in them.

[0254] Additional parameters can preferably be included, for example toenable soundbank data associated with a particular song to be embedded.Following this example, when such a CDS is accessed, the sound bank datapreferably is loaded into non-volatile memory accessible to a DSP suchthat the sound bank data may be used during the generation of musicoutput.

[0255]FIG. 31 depicts a preferable example flow chart for the CDSapproach discussed above. It is similar to FIG. 29, except that at thepoints in the flow where the Seeds are loaded, determined, updated,and/or stored, there are corresponding references to loading,determining, updating, and/or storing CDS parameter data correspondingto Song Structure, Structure, Filtered Track, Progression, Chord,Pattern, Instrument, State, Parameter, and Nota Bene.

[0256] In certain preferred embodiments the Player 10 is accompanied bya companion PC software system designed to execute on a PC system andcommunicate with Player 10 via a data link (e.g., USB 54, Serial I/O 57,and/or a wireless link such as 802.11b, Bluetooth, IRDA, etc.). Such aPC software system preferably is configured to provide the user with asimple and effective way to copy files between the Player 10 and otherlocations (e.g., the PC hard drive, the Internet, other devices, etc.).For example, the companion PC software program preferably operates underthe MS Windows family of Operating Systems and provides full access tothe User for all Player 10 functions and Modes, as well as the localPlayer memory (e.g., SMC). Following this example, a user can connect tothe Internet and upload or download music related files suitable to beused with the Player 10 (e.g., MIDI, WMA, MP3, Karaoke, CDS, SDS, etc.)as well as user interface-related files such as customizeduser-selectable graphics preferably to be associated with music stylesor songs on the Player 10. Such a companion PC program preferably isalso used to enable hardware and/or software housekeeping features to beeasily managed, such as firmware and sound bank updates. This companionPC software system preferably is used to provide the user with an easyway to share music components and/or complete songs with other users inthe world (e.g., via FTP access, as attachments to email, viapeer-to-peer networking software such as Napster, etc.). It is importantto note the potentially royalty-free nature and extreme size efficiencyof musical output from the Player 10 lends itself well to the Internetcontext of open source file sharing.

[0257] Various examples of preferred embodiments for hardwareimplementation examples of the present invention will now be described.

[0258]FIG. 32 is a block diagram of one portable hardware deviceembodiment 35 of the present invention. The microprocessor (MP 36)controls local address and data busses (MP Add 37 and MP Data 38); theuniversal serial bus interface (USB 39), the smart media card interface(SMC 40) (as discussed previously, alternatives to SmartMedia, such asother types of Flash or other memory cards or other storage media suchas hard disk drives or the like may be used in accordance with thepresent invention), and a memory such as Flash 41 are preferably on theMP data bus 38; and the MIDI/Audio DSP (DSP 42) is preferably on boththe MP address bus 37 and MP data bus 38. The SMC interface 40preferably has a buffer 59 between it and the MP Data bus 38, and therepreferably are keyboard interface 42 (with MP Data Latch 44) and LCDinterface 45 associated with the MP busses as well. In this example, theMP 36 can preferably perform as a sequencer to extract timinginformation from an input data stream and send MIDI information(possibly including NRPN-type data discussed elsewhere in thisdisclosure) to the DSP 42. The DSP 42 additionally preferably hasdedicated address and data busses (DSP Add 46 and DSP Data 47) thatpreferably provide access to local RAM 48 and Flash 49 memories.

[0259] The MP 36, DSP 42, FM receiver 50, and Microphone input 51 allpreferably have some type of input to the hardware CODEC 52 associatedwith the DSP 42.

[0260] The connector 53 at the top left of FIG. 32 can be considered asa docking station interface or as a pure USB interface or external powerinterface, preferably complete with interfaces for USB 54, power 55,rechargeable battery charge 56, serial I/O 57, and Audio I/O 58. Anexample of a block diagram for a docking station device 70 of thepresent invention is provided in FIG. 34. As is shown in FIG. 34, thedocking station 70 preferably includes a local microprocessor (LMP 71),preferably with a USB interface 72, address and data busses (LMP ADD 73and LMP Data 74), a MIDI I/O interface 75, and memory such as Flash 76.Additionally, the docking station device 70 preferably contains an AudioCodec 77, a Video I/O interface 78, and a Power Supply 79.

[0261] The MP 36 in this example is preferably the ARM AT91R40807,though any similar microprocessor could be utilized (such as versionsthat have on-board Flash, more RAM, faster clock, lower voltage/lowerpower consumption, etc.). This ARM core has 2 sets of instructions: 32bit and 16 bit. Having multiple width instructions is desirable in thegiven type of application in that the 16 bit work well with embeddedsystems (Flash, USB, SMC, etc.), and 32 bit instructions workefficiently in situations where large streams of data are being passedaround, etc. Other variations of instruction bit length could easily beapplied under the present invention.

[0262] For 32 bit instructions, the system of the present inventionpreferably pre-loads certain instructions from the Flash memory 41 intothe internal RAM of the MP 36. This is because the Flash interface is 16bit, so to execute a 32 bit instruction takes at least 2 cycles. Also,the Flash memory 41 typically has a delay associated with readoperations. In one example, the delay is approximately 90 ns. This delaytranslates into the requirement for a number of inserted wait states(e.g., 2) in a typical read operation. Conversely, the internal RAM ofthe MP 36 has much less delay associated with a read operation, and sothere are less wait states (e.g., 0). Of course, the internal RAM inthis case is 32 bits wide, and so the efficiencies of a 32 bitinstruction can be realized.

[0263] As is shown above in the example regarding the wait states ofFlash memory 41, there are many reasons why it is desirable to try tomaximize the use of the internal MP RAM. As can be seen from FIG. 32,this example of the present invention preferably does not include anSDRAM or RDRAM. While these types of memory means are available toinclude in such a system, and such use would not depart from the spiritand scope of the present invention, in certain portable applications,such as depicted in FIG. 32, the use of relatively unnecessarycomplexity (e.g., SDRAM controllers & address logic, etc.) is notpreferable. The current example of FIG. 32 achieves many of the benefitsof the present invention, in a simple design suitable for a portabledevice.

[0264] One example of a trade-off associated with complexity andportability is the use of a widely available WMA audio decoder algorithmfrom Microsoft. In this example, when operating the ARM MP of FIG. 32 at32 MHz/3.0V, Microsoft's WMA decoding algorithms can be incorporated tosuccessfully decode and play a WMA-encoded song in stereo at 44 KHz andat a sample rate of 128 Kbps. However, as discussed elsewhere in thisspecification, a preferable feature that allows the speed of an audiostream song to be adjusted can also be incorporated. In this case, whenspeeding up the WMA 44 KHz song using the speed control, it is possiblethat the system of FIG. 32 may encounter an underrun condition. In thisspecific example, such cases do not occur when the ARM MP 36 is operatedat 40 MHz/3.0V. However, when operating the MP 36 at 3.0V, a significantperformance hit on battery life can occur. So, because the use of theWMA at 44 KHz in combination with the pitch speed feature seems to berelatively unnecessary, this particular example feature can preferablybe sacrificed for the benefit of a longer battery life. Obviously, onecould incorporate variations such as: a better battery system, a speedstepped approach that operates at full speed when plugged in and at aslower speed when using batteries, a more efficient WMA algorithm, etc.However, this example illustrates the point that competing needs canpreferably be balanced with performance and portability.

[0265] In the example of FIG. 32, the MP 36 contains 136 KB of internalRAM. The performance/portability balance described above dictates thatone preferably must play certain tricks on the system to maximize theefficiency of the 136 Kb RAM. For example, the memory range canpreferably be divided into different regions for buffering, programs,etc., and in real-time modes (e.g., WMA playback), the percentage usedfor the code can preferably be maximized and the percentage used forbuffers preferably minimized.

[0266] Another alternative embodiment can be an MP 36 with preferablymore internal RAM (for example, 512 KB) which would preferably allow areduction or elimination of the use of Flash memory 41. Such a systemmay add to the total cost, but would reduce the complexities associatedwith using Flash memory 41 discussed above.

[0267] Another variation is the example shown in FIG. 33, whichdescribes the local DSP area of FIG. 32 wherein preferably additionalRAM 90 is accessible on the DSP bus. Such additional RAM can bepreferably used to temporarily store large MIDI sound loops that can beplayed quickly and often. RAM 90 can also preferably be used totemporarily store one or more sound streams (e.g., PCM) that can thus bepreloaded and played quickly. Without this feature, each sample mightneed to be managed and sent by the MP to the DSP every time it is used,in real time. While this is not a problem in certain implementations ofthe present invention, it may be advantageous to use such additional RAM90 as shown in FIG. 33 when extensive usage of sound streams is desired.In such cases, a typical size of the RAM 90 in FIG. 33 might preferablybe 512 KB, and the MP will preferably only need to send an instructionto the DSP to play the locally stored stream.

[0268] Continuing the discussion of the architecture shown in FIG. 32,FIG. 35 describes one example for an address map for the internal RAM ofthe MP. Starting from the bottom of the map, the bottom two sectionsrepresent the libraries and routines that are often used, and are alwaysloaded in RAM. The midsection labeled “multi-use” is preferably used forWMA/MP3 related code during the playback of WMA, MP3, and/or othersimilarly encoded audio stream songs from the SMC. However, during othermodes, such as eDJ mode, this midsection is preferably used for Block,Song, and SMC buffers. The next section above this area is preferablyused as a buffer for streaming media. This section is preferably dividedinto a number of subsections, and each subsection is preferably sent tothe DSP device at regular intervals (e.g., 5.8 ms@44.1 kHz, 16 bit, 1 Kbblocks). Above this, at the top of FIG. 35, is the general-purpose areaof MP RAM preferably used for variables and general buffers.

[0269] In this example, when the Player is not operating in aWMA/MP3/etc. mode, the ‘multi-use’ mid section can preferably be usedfor at least three types of buffers. Block buffers are preferably usedby the eDJ Block creation algorithms (e.g., FIGS. 24 and 25) to storeBlock data during operation. Song buffers are preferably used by the eDJalgorithms to store Song data (see FIG. 15) after Block creation hasoccurred. This Song data is preferably fed out to the DSP device shownin FIG. 32. SMC buffers are preferably used for write operations to theSMC.

[0270] SMC is a Flash memory technology that doesn't allow themodification of a single bit. To perform a write to the SMC, one mustread the entire SMC Block, update the desired portion of the SMC Block,and then write the entire SMC Block back to the SMC. In the interests ofefficiency, the currently used SMC Block is preferably maintained in theSMC buffers.

[0271] As one can appreciate, the system configuration described abovecannot simultaneously playback large WMA/MP3 streams while also writingto the SMC. This is because the two functions preferably alternativelyuse the same memory region. This is a creative use of limited resources,because it is preferably a relatively unusual condition to be readingWMA/MP3 while writing SMC at the same time. So the code is preferablyarranged to swap in and out of the same location. Such an arrangementallows maximized use of the limited resources in a portable environmentsuch as FIG. 32.

[0272] However, in a more powerful environment (with additionalresources, and/or faster clock speed), this ‘multi-use’ of a sharedregion of memory could preferably be eliminated, and simultaneous use ofWMA/MP3 and the Record function could easily be implemented. Obviously,these additional enhancements for use in a portable environment do notlimit the other aspects of the present invention.

[0273] The system discussed above is portable, but preferably hasextremely high-quality sound. On a very basic level, this is partly dueto the use of a sound chip that typically would be found in a high-endsound card in a PC system. The SAM9707 chip is preferable because of itsexcellent sound capabilities, but this has required it be adaptedsomewhat to work in the portable example discussed herein.

[0274] One characteristic of the SAM9707 is that it is typicallyconfigured to work with SDRAM in a sound card. This SDRAM wouldtypically hold the MIDI sound banks during normal operation. Such soundbanks are preferably a critical part of the final sound quality of musicthat is output from a DSP-enabled system. In fact, another reason whythis particular chip is preferable is to allow custom sounds topreferably be designed.

[0275] In the example above of a portable system, SDRAM addssignificantly to the power requirements, as well as the address logic.Accordingly, it is desirable to use a variation of the configuration,preferably using Flash as local DSP sound bank storage (see FIG. 32).The use of Flash memory as local DSP storage is a bit problematicbecause, in order to allow a user to upgrade the sound banks of theirportable Player system, the local DSP Flash memory preferably needs tobe accessible from the MP side of the architecture. Such access could begained through the use of a dual-port Flash memory, with memory accessfrom both the DSP busses and the ARM MP busses, but such a dual portarchitecture would add expenses and complexity to the system.

[0276] The problem of reaching a proper balance between maintaining thelow power/simple architecture on one hand, and providing high quality,upgradeable, music sound banks on the other hand, is preferably solvedby adapting a mode of the DSP chip, and preferably customizing theaddress logic in such a way that the DSP can be “tricked” into providingthe access from the MP side to the local DSP Flash memory.

[0277]FIG. 36 describes an example of an addressing space for the DSPlocal RAM and Flash storage. Starting from the bottom of the map, thefirst section is preferably for Firmware, and this is typicallyaddressed to a Flash memory region. The next section is preferably thesound banks, and this is also typically addressed to a Flash region. Thethird section is preferably addressed to Flash when signal A24 is active(in this case, A24 is active low, or=0). Signal A24 is discussed morebelow. The fourth section, with starting address 0x1000000, ispreferably a 32 Kb block that is not addressed to any memory locations.The fifth section is preferably also 32 Kb and is preferably addressedto the local DSP RAM (labeled RAM_(a)). Note that when addressing thisarea, signal A24 is preferably high. The seventh section, with startingaddress 0x2000000, is preferably a 32 Kb section that preferablyresolves to RAM (labeled RAM_(b)). The two 32 Kb RAM regions arepreferably combined into the 64 Kb local RAM.

[0278] So the first variation of the present invention, to the generaluse of the DSP chip, especially in its intended context of a sound cardfor a PC, is the address location of the RAM_(a). This region isselected to allow a very simple address decode logic arrangement(preferably external to the DSP) so that the assertion of A24 willpreferably toggle the destination of RAM_(a) addresses, betweenDSP-local RAM and DSP-local Flash memories. This variation preferablyinvolves a firmware modification that will allow the specific locationof RAM_(a) to be configured properly preferably by default at startuptime. There are other ways to modify this location after initialization,but they are more complicated, and therefore are not as desirable as thepresent method.

[0279] Another variation to the intended context of the DSP chip addressmap preferably involves a creative implementation of the DSPs BOOT modeto allow the sound banks to be upgraded, even though the sound banks arepreferably located in the local Flash memory of the DSP chip; a locationnot typically accessible for sound bank upgrades.

[0280] In this example, the BOOT mode of the DSP causes an internalbootstrap program to execute from internal ROM. This bootstrap programmight typically be used while upgrading the DSP firmware. As such, theinternal bootstrap expects to receive 256 words from the 16 bit bursttransfer port, which it expects to store at address range 0100H-01FFH inthe local memory, after which the bootstrap program resumes control ataddress 0100H. This relatively small burst is fixed, and is not largeenough to contain sound banks. Furthermore, it does not allow thecomplex Flash memory write activities, as discussed above in connectionwith the SMC. Since our design preferably uses Flash instead of SDRAM,we have found it highly desirable to use this bootstrap burst to loadcode that preferably ‘tricks’ the ROM bootstrap to effectuate thetransfer of special code from the ARM MP bus to the RAM. This specialcode is then used to preferably effectuate the transfer of sound bankupgrade data from the ARM MP bus to the Flash memory.

[0281]FIG. 37 is a simple truth table that provides additionalinformation on this unusual use of the DSP bootstrap mode addressingscheme. FIG. 38 is a more detailed truth table that highlights theusefulness of our unusual DSP address logic, including the preferableuse of the A24 signal controllable by the ARM MP, preferably by use ofthe BOOT signal.

[0282] In the present example, the A24 address line generated by the DSPis preferably altered by the BOOT signal controlled by the MP beforebeing presented to the address decoding logic of the DSP local memory.This arrangement permits the MP to preferably invert the DSP's selectionof RAM and Flash in BOOT mode, and thus allows the RAM to preferably beavailable at address 0x100 to receive the upgrade code.

[0283] Additional variations to the hardware arrangement discussed abovecan be considered. For example, if the power level is increased, and theMP performance increased, the DSP could be substituted with a softwareDSP. This may result in lower quality sounds, but it could have otherbenefits that outweigh that, such as lower cost, additional flexibility,etc. The DSP could similarly be replaced with a general-purpose hardwareDSP, with the result of lower quality sounds, possibly outweighed by thebenefits of increased portability, etc. The MP could be replaced withone having a greater number of integrated interfaces (e.g., USB, SMC,LCD, etc.), and/or more RAM, faster clock speed, etc. With a few changesto some of the disclosed embodiments, one could practice the presentinvention with only a DSP (no separate MP), or a dual die DSP/MP, orwith only an MP and software. Additionally, the SMC memory storage couldbe substituted with a Secure Digital (SD) memory card with embeddedencryption, and/or a hard disk drive, compact flash, writeable CDROM,etc., to store sound output. Also, the LCD could be upgraded to a color,or multi-level gray LCD, and/or a touch-sensitive display that wouldpreferably allow another level of user interface features.

[0284] Yet a further variation of the present discussion preferably canbe the incorporation of a electromagnetic or capacitive touch padpointing device, such as a TouchPad available from Synaptics, to provideadditional desirable characteristics to the user interface. Both thetouch pad and the touch sensitive display mentioned above can be used toprovide the user with a way to tap in a rhythm, and/or strum anote/chord. Such a device preferably can be used to enable a closerapproximation to the operation of a particular instrument group. Forexample, the touch pad can be used to detect the speed and rhythm of auser's desired guitar part from the way the user moves a finger or handacross the surface of the touch pad. Similarly, the movement of theusers hand through the x and y coordinates of such a pointing device canbe detected in connection with the pitch and/or frequency of aninstrument, or the characteristics of an effect or sample. In anotherexample, a touch pad pointing device can also be used to trigger and/orcontrol turntable scratching sounds approximating the scratching soundsa conventional DJ can generate with a turntable.

[0285] As can be seen in FIG. 32, one example of a DSP that can be usedin the context of the present invention is the SAM9707 chip availablefrom the Dream S.A. subsidiary of Atmel Corporation. This particularchip is able to handle incoming MIDI and audio stream information.

[0286] When incorporating the DSP into a generative/interactive musicsystem, it is highly desirable to synchronize the MIDI and audiostreams. A sample preferably has to play at exactly the right time,every time; when the audio stream components get even slightly out ofsync with the MIDI events, the resulting musical output generally isunacceptable. This delicate nature of mixing audio streams and MIDItogether in a generative/interactive context is worsened by the natureof the Flash read process, in that SMC technology is slow to respond,and requires complex read machinations. It is difficult to accuratelysync MIDI events with playback of audio from a Flash memory location.Because of the delay in decoding and playing a sample (compared to aMIDI event), there is a tradeoff in either performing timingcompensation, or preloading relatively large data chunks. Because ofthese issues, it is preferable to configure a new way to use MIDI andaudio streams with the DSP chip. While this aspect of the presentinvention is discussed in terms of the DSP architecture, it will beobvious to one of ordinary skill in the art of MIDI/audio streamsynchronization that the following examples apply to other similararchitectures.

[0287]FIG. 39 shows a simplified logical arrangement of the MIDI andAudio Streams in the music generation process. The two inputs going tothe Synth are preferably merged and turned into a digital audio outputsignal. This output signal is then preferably fed to a digital to analogconverter (DAC), from which is preferably output an analog audio signalsuitable for use with headphones, etc. Note that in our example, theAudio stream input to the Synth might typically come from a relativelyslow memory means (e.g.; Flash memory), while the MIDI input to theSynth might come from a relatively fast memory means (e.g.; SRAMbuffer).

[0288] The two inputs to the Synth device preferably may actually sharea multiplexed bus; but logically they can be considered as separatelydistinguishable inputs. In one example, the two inputs share a 16 bitwide bus. In this case, the MIDI input preferably may occupy 8 bits atone time, and the audio stream input preferably may occupy 16 bits atanother time. Following this example, one stream preferably may pausewhile the other takes the bus. Such alternating use of the same bus canmean that relatively small pauses in each stream are constantlyoccurring. Such pauses are intended to be imperceptible, and so, for ourpurposes here, the two streams can be thought of as separate.

[0289]FIG. 40 shows a simplified MIDI/Audio Stream timeline. Assume thatFIG. 40 is the timing for the very beginning of a Block. It followsthen, that in this case, the designer wants to play a MIDI note,starting 250 ms after the beginning of the Block, that will last 500 ms.The duration of the note relates to the type of note being played, forexample, if it is a quarter note in a 4/4 time, and with a measureduration of 2 seconds, a 500 ms would correspond to a quarter noteduration. Also indicated in FIG. 40, that an Audio stream event such asa short voice sample “yo” will preferably be synchronized to occur inthe middle of the MIDI event. Bear in mind that this method allows thesample to preferably be quantized to the music, in the sense that it caninvolve the subtle correction of minor timing errors on the part of theuser by synchronizing the sample to the musical context.

[0290] In this example, largely because of the constraints of the systemarchitecture example discussed above, this is not a trivial thing toaccomplish consistently and accurately using conventional techniques.Keeping in mind that the MIDI event is preferably generated almostinstantly by the Synth chip, whereas the Audio Stream event couldrequire one or more of the following assistance from the ARM MP:fetching a sound from SMC, decompressing (PCM, etc.), adding soundeffects (reverb, filters, etc.).

[0291] In this example, it is highly desirable to create a special MIDIfile preferably containing delta time information for each event, andspecialized non-registered parameter numbers (NRPNs). This feature isespecially advantageous when used with a Sample List (as mentionedabove) because the name of a particular sample in a list is preferablyimplicit, and the NRPNs can preferably be used to trigger differentsamples in the particular sample list without explicitly calling for aparticular sample name or type. This type of optimization reduces theburden of fetching a particular sample by name or type, and canpreferably allow the samples used to be preloaded.

[0292]FIG. 41 depicts an example of a MIDI NRPN that can beadvantageously incorporated into the present invention to allowefficient synchronization of MIDI events with audio samples and effects.The left column depicts the hexadecimal values making up the MIDI NRPNstream. As anyone who works with the MIDI Specification (previouslyincorporated by reference) will appreciate, the MIDI NRPN is a datastructure that enables custom use of portions of a MIDI stream.Accordingly, it can preferably be used to trigger specific custom eventsfor a given architecture.

[0293] In FIG. 41, the first hexadecimal value ‘B0’ preferably indicatesa channel number, as well as that it is a MIDI controller command. Thiscan be used to assist with routing in a multi-channel arrangement. Inour example, for purposes of simplicity this is set channel 0. Thesecond value ‘63’ preferably indicates that this particular streamcontains NRPN information for a particular controller (e.g., ‘A’). Inthis example, NRPN Controller A can be understood by thefirmware/software to indicate an audio sample type. The third row valueof ‘40’ preferably is data that corresponds to the controller, and inour example this data can be understood to describe the type of sample.As an example of the usefulness of this arrangement, if the type is setto ‘long’, then the firmware/software preferably can arrange to load thesample in chunks. The fourth row preferably indicates a delta time, inMIDI clicks, that can preferably be used to precisely time the nextevent. In our example, this delta time is set to ‘00’ for simplicity.The fifth row preferably indicates that this particular stream containsNRPN information for a ‘B’ controller. In this example, NRPN ControllerB can be understood by firmware/software to indicate an audio effectstype. This is because we have found it advantageous to use a MIDI DSPcomponent that includes certain audio effects that can be controlledeffectively in a timely manner via MIDI NRPNs. The sixth row preferablyindicates the identification of the particular audio effects type calledfor in this NRPN example. While ‘00’ is shown for simplicity, it shouldbe understood that the value in this part of the MIDI stream can beinterpreted by the firmware/software to select a particular effect fromthe available audio effects for a particular architecture. The seventhrow preferably indicates another delta time that can be interpreted as adelay. The eighth row preferably can be used to indicate to thefirmware/software the identification of a register to store the NRPNController A value shown in row nine. The ninth row uses ‘03’ as anexample; this preferably can be interpreted to mean the third audiosample in a list corresponding to a song (see ‘Sample List’ in FIGS. 29and 30). Value ‘00’ can be used effectively to instruct thefirmware/software to select a sample from the sample list randomly. Thetenth row of FIG. 41 is preferably another delta time value (e.g., ‘00’is zero MIDI clicks). The eleventh row preferably can be used toindicate to the firmware/software the identification of a register tostore the NRPN Controller B value shown in row 12. The twelfth row uses‘07’ as an example; in the present discussion this preferably can beinterpreted by the firmware/software to instruct the MIDI DSP to apply aparticular audio effect among those available.

[0294]FIG. 42 is a simplified depiction of a special MIDI type file thatis an example of the arrangement of the data being sent from the ARM MPto the DSP preferably via the MIDI input stream, along the lines of theexample above.

[0295] The top of the figure indicates that the first information inthis file is a delta time of 250 ms. This corresponds to the 250 msdelay at the beginning of FIG. 40. Next in the file depicted in FIG. 42is general MIDI information preferably indicating a note on event forchannel 1, pitch C. This corresponds to the time in FIG. 40 when 250 mshas passed. Next in FIG. 42, we have another 250 ms delta time. Thisrepresents the time between the previous MIDI event, and the next AudioStream event at time 500 ms in FIG. 40. Next, in FIG. 42 we have an NRPNmessage that preferably indicates to the Synth chip that it needs toplay the audio stream event X, with various parameters P, and variouseffects E. This corresponds to the audio stream event (‘yo’) depicted inFIG. 40. Then, in FIG. 42 we have another delta time event of 250 ms,followed by the general MIDI information preferably indicating a noteoff event for channel 1, pitch C. This final step corresponds to the endof the MIDI event in FIG. 40 (e.g., ‘C’ quarter note).

[0296] In the previous example, the delta time preferably can bedifferent (and often is) each time in the special MIDI type file. In oursimplified example, and because we want to make the timing relationshipwith a quarter note, etc., more clear, we have used the same 250 msvalue each time. Obviously, in a more complex file, the delta time willvary.

[0297] As previously described, voice and other audio samples may beencoded, stored and processed for playback in accordance with thepresent invention. In certain preferred embodiments, voice samples arecoded in a PCM format, and preferably in the form of an adaptive(predictive), differential PCM (ADPCM) format. While other PCM formatsor other sample coding formats may be used in accordance with thepresent invention, and particular PCM coding formats (and ways ofproviding effects as will be hereinafter described) are not essential topractice various aspects of the present invention, a description ofexemplary ADPCM as well as certain effects functions will be providedfor a fuller understanding of certain preferred embodiments of thepresent invention. In accordance with such embodiments, a type of ADPCMmay provide certain advantages in accordance with the present invention.

[0298] As will be appreciated by those of skill in the art based on thedisclosure herein, the use of ADPCM can enable advantages such asreduced size of the data files to store samples, which are preferablystored in the non-volatile storage (e.g., SMC), thus enabling moresamples, song lists and songs to be stored in a given amount ofnon-volatile storage. Preferably, the coding is done by a packet of thesize of the ADPCM frame (e.g., 8 samples). For each packet, preferably acode provides the maximum value; the maximum difference between twosamples is coded and integrated in the file. Each code (differencebetween samples (delta_max) and code of the packet (diff_max)) uses 4bits. In accordance with this example, the data/sample is therefore(8*4+4)/8=4.5 bits/sample.

[0299] As will be appreciated, this type of coding attempts to code onlywhat is really necessary. Over 8 samples, the maximum difference betweentwo samples is in general much less than the possible dynamic range ofthe signal (+32767/−32768), and it is therefore possible to allowoneself to code only the difference between samples. Preferably, theADPCM is chosen to be suitable for the voice that is relativelystationary. By predictive filtering, it is possible to reduce thedifference between a new sample and its prediction. The better theprediction, the smaller the difference, and the smaller the coding (thequantization) that is chosen, taking into account the averagedifferences encountered. While it will be appreciated that this approachrequires additional computation ability for the prediction computation,it is believed that this approach provides significant advantages inreduced storage for samples with acceptable sample coding quality inaccordance with the present invention. While more conventional orstandardized ADPCM desires to offer a coding time without introducingdelays, with the present invention it has been determined that suchattributes are not essential.

[0300] A simple coding without prediction and taking into account onlyaverage values of differences encountered reacts very poorly to anon-stationary state (e.g., each beginning of a word or syllable). Foreach new word or syllable, a new difference much greater than theaverage differences previously encountered typically cannot be suitablycoded. One therefore tends to hear an impulse noise depending on thelevel of the signal. Preferably, the solution is therefore to give themaximum value of the difference encountered (one therefore has a delayof 8 samples, a prediction is thus made for the quantizer only) for afixed number of samples and to code the samples as a function of thismaximum difference (in percentage). The coding tends to be more optimalat each instant, and reacts very well to a non-stationary state (eachbeginning of a word or syllable). Preferably, the coding is logarithmic(the ear is sensitive to the logarithm and not to the linear), and theSignal/Noise ratio is 24 db. In preferred embodiments, this function isput in internal RAM in order to be executed, for example, 3 times morerapidly (one clock cycle for each instruction instead of three inexternal flash memory).

[0301] Preferably certain effects may be included in the ADPCM codingused in certain embodiments of the present invention. For example, adoppler effect may be included in the ADPCM decoding since it requires avariable number of ADPCM samples for a final fixed number of 256samples. As is known, such a doppler effect typically consists ofplaying the samples more or less rapidly, which corresponds to avariation of the pitch of the decoded voice accompanied by a variationof the speed together with the variation of pitch. In order to give anatural and linear variation, it is desirable to be able to interpolatenew samples between two other samples. The linear interpolation methodhas been determined to have certain disadvantages in that it tends toadd unpleasant high frequency harmonics to the ear.

[0302] The method traditionally used consists of over-sampling thesignal (for example, in a ratio [of] 3 or 4) the signal and thenfiltering the aliasing frequencies. The filtered signal is theninterpolated linearly. The disadvantage of this method is that itrequires additional computational ability. Preferably, in accordancewith certain embodiments, a technique is utilized that consists ofinterpolating the signal with the four adjacent samples. It preferablycorresponds to a second order interpolation that allows a 4.5 dB gainfor the harmonics created by a linear interpolation. While 4.5 db seemslow, it is important to consider it in high frequencies where the voicesignal is weak. The original high frequencies of the voice are masked bythe upper harmonics of the low frequencies in the case of the linearmethod, and this effect disappears with second order interpolation.Moreover, it tends to be three times faster than the over-samplingmethod. Preferably, this function is put in internal RAM in order to beexecuted, for example, 3 times more rapidly (one clock cycle for eachinstruction instead of three in external flash memory).

[0303] Also in accordance with preferred embodiments, an electronicmetronome function is included, which consists of counting the periodnumber (the pitch) in an analysis window in order to deduce from thisthe fundamental frequency. Preferably, this function may be utilized toprocess samples in order to reveal the periods. In general, it is notfeasible to count the peaks in the window because the signal tends tovary with time (for example, the beating of 1 to 3 piano strings thatare not necessarily perfectly in tune); moreover, in the same period,there can be more than one peak. In accordance with such embodiments,the distance between a reference considered at the beginning of theanalysis window and each of the panes shifted by one sample. For awindow of 2*WINDOW_SIZE samples and a reference window of WINDOW_SIZEsamples, one therefore may therefore carry out WINDOW_SIZE computationsof distance on WINDOW_SIZE samples. Preferably, the computation ofdistance is done by a sum of the absolute value of the differencesbetween reference samples and analysis samples. This function preferablyis put in internal RAM in order to be executed, for example, 3 timesmore rapidly (one clock cycle for each instruction instead of three inexternal flash memory).

[0304] Also in accordance with such embodiments, special effects such aswobbler, flange, echo and reverb may be provided with the ADPCMencoding. Such special effects preferably are produced over 256 samplescoming from the ADPCM decoder and from the doppler effect. Preferably,this function is put in internal RAM in order to be executed, forexample, 3 times more rapidly (one clock cycle for each instructioninstead of three in external flash memory). Preferably, the averagevalue of the sample is computed, and it is subtracted from the sample(which can be present over the samples) in order to avoid executing thewobbler function on it, which would add the modulation frequency in thesignal (and tend to produce an unpleasant hiss). Preferably, the methodfor the wobbler effect is a frequency modulation based on sample=samplemultiplied by a sine function (based on suitable wobbler frequencies, aswill be understood by those of skill in the art).

[0305] Also in accordance with the preferred embodiments, the purpose ofthe flange effect is to simulate the impression that more than oneperson is speaking or singing with a single source voice. In order tolimit the computation power, two voices preferably are simulated. Inorder to provide this impression, preferably the pitch of the sourcevoice is changed and added to the original source voice. The mostaccurate method would be to analyze the voice using a vocoder and thento change the pitch without changing the speed. In each case, one couldhave the impression that a man and a woman are singing together,although such a method typically would require DSP resources. A methodthat changes the pitch without changing the speed (important if onewants the voices to remain synchronous) consists of simulating thesecond voice by alternately accelerating and decelerating the samples.One then produces the doppler effect explained in the preceding, butwith a doppler that varies alternately around zero in such a way as tohave a slightly different pitch and the voices synchronous. With suchembodiments, one may simulate, for example, a person placed on a circleapproximately 4 meters in diameter regularly turning around its axis andplaced beside another stationary person.

[0306] Also in accordance with such embodiments, the echo effect is thesum of a source sample and of a delayed sample, and the reverb effect isthe sum of a source sample and a delayed sample affected by a gainfactor. The delayed samples preferably may be put in a circular bufferand are those resulting from the sum. The formula of the reverb effectmay therefore be:

[0307] Sample(0)=sample(0)+sample(−n)*gain+sample(−2*n)*gain{circumflexover ( )}2+sample(−3*n)*gain{circumflex over ( )}+ . . .+sample(−i*n)*gain{circumflex over ( )}i. Preferably, the gain is chosento be less than 1 in order to avoid a divergence. In accordance withpreferred embodiments, for reasons of size of the buffer, which can beconsiderable, the echo effect preferably uses the same buffer as that ofthe reverb effect. In order to have a true echo, it is necessary to givereverb a gain effect that is zero or low. The two effects can functionat the same time. The delay between a new sample and an old one isproduced by reading the oldest sample put in the memory buffer. In orderto avoid shifting the buffer for each new sample, the reading pointer ofthe buffer is incremented by limiting this pointer between theboundaries of the buffer. The size of the memory buffer thereforedepends on the time between samples.

[0308] Also in accordance with such embodiments, an electronic tunerfunction may be provided, the aim of which is to find the fundamental ofthe sample signal coming from the microphone in order to give the noteplayed by a musical instrument. Similar to what has been describedpreviously, a preferred method will consist of computing the number ofperiods for a given time that is a multiple of the period in order toincrease the accuracy of computation of the period. In effect, a singleperiod will give little accuracy if the value of this period is poorbecause of the sampling. In order to detect the periods, preferably oneuses a routine which computes the distance between a reference taken atthe beginning of the signal and the signal. As will be understood, theperiod will be the position of the last period divided by the totalnumber of periods between the first and the last period. The effectiveposition of the last period is computed by an interpolation of the truemaximum between two distance samples. The period thus computed will giveby inversion (using a division of 64 bits/32 bits) the fundamentalfrequency with great precision (better than {fraction (1/4000)} for asignal without noise, which is often the case).

[0309] Also in accordance with such embodiments, a low pass filter (orother filter) function may be provided as part of the effects providedwith the ADPCM sample coding. Such a function may eliminate with alow-pass filter the high frequencies of the samples used for computationof the distance such for the routines previously described. These highfrequencies tend to disturb the computations if they are too elevated.Filtering is done by looking for the highest value in order to normalizethe buffer used for computation of the distance.

[0310] Also in accordance with the present invention, there are numerousadditional implementations and variations that preferably can be usedwith many desirable aspects of the present invention. Exemplary ways touse the present invention to great effect include a software-basedapproach, as well as general integration with other products.Additionally, several valuable variations to the present invention canbe used with great success, especially with regard to media contentmanagement, integration with video, and other miscellaneous variations.

[0311] Many aspects of the present invention can be incorporated withsuccess into a software-based approach. For example, the hardware DSP ofthe above discussion can be substituted with a software synthesizer toperform signal processing functions (the use of a hardware-basedsynthesizer is not a requirement of the present invention). Such anapproach preferably will take advantage of the excess processing powerof, for example, a contemporary personal computer, and preferably willprovide the quality of the music produced in a hardware-based device,while also providing greater compatibility across multiple platforms(e.g., it is easier to share a song that can be played on any PC).Configuring certain embodiments of the present invention into asoftware-based approach enables additional variations, such as aself-contained application geared toward a professional music creator,or alternatively geared towards an armchair music enthusiast.Additionally, it is preferable to configure a software-based embodimentof the present invention for use in a website (e.g., a java languageapplet), with user preferences and/or customizations to be stored inlocal files on the user's computer (e.g., cookies). Such an approachpreferably enables a user to indicate a music accompaniment stylepreference that will ‘stick’ and remain on subsequent visits to thesite. Variations of a software-based approach preferably involve a‘software plug-in’ approach to an existing content generation softwareapplication (such as Macromedia Flash, Adobe Acrobat, MacromediaAuthorware, Microsoft PowerPoint, and/or Adobe AfterEffects). It isuseful to note that such a plug-in can benefit from the potentiallyroyalty free music, and that in certain embodiments, it may bepreferable to export an interactively generated musical piece into astreaming media format (e.g., ASF) for inclusion in a Flashpresentation, a PDF file, an Authorware presentation, an AfterEffectsmovie, etc. Certain embodiments of the present invention can be involvedin a Internet-based arrangement that enables a plurality of users tointeractively generate music together in a cooperative sense, preferablyin real time. Aspects of the present invention involving customizedmusic can be incorporated as part of music games (and/or music learningaids), news sources (e.g., internet news sites), language games (and/orlanguage learning aids), etc. Additionally, a software/hardware hybridapproach incorporating many features and benefits of the presentinvention can involve a hybrid “DSP” module that plugs into a high speedbus (e.g., IEEE 1394, or USB, etc.) of a personal computing system. Insuch an approach, the functionality of MP 36 can be performed by apersonal computing system, while the functionality of DSP 42 can beperformed by a DSP located on a hardware module attached to a peripheralbus such as USB. Following this example, a small USB module about thesize of a automobile key can be plugged into the USB port of a PCsystem, and can be used to perform the hardware DSP functions associatedwith the interactive auto-generation of algorithmic music.

[0312] As will be appreciated, aspects of the present invention may beincorporated into a variety of systems and applications, an example ofwhich may be a PBX or other telephone type system. An exemplary systemis disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,289,025 to Pang et al.,which is hereby incorporated by reference (other exemplary systemsinclude PBX systems from companies such as Alcatel, Ericsson, Nortel,Avaya and the like). As will be appreciated from such an exemplarysystem, a plurality of telephones and telephony interfaces may beprovided with the system, and users at the facility in which the systemis located, or users who access the system externally (such as via aPOTS telephone line or other telephone line), may have calls that arereceived by the system. Such calls may be directed by the system toparticular users, or alternatively the calls may be placed on hold (suchaspects of such an exemplary system are conventional and will not bedescribed in greater detail herein). Typically, on-hold music isprovided to callers placed on hold, with the on-hold music consisting ofa radio station or taped or other recorded music coupled through anaudio input, typically processed with a coder and provided as an audiostream (such as PCM) and coupled to the telephone of the caller on hold.

[0313] In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, however,one or more modules are provided in the exemplary system to provideon-hold music to the caller on hold. Such a module, for example, couldinclude the required constituent hardware/software components of aPlayer as described elsewhere herein (see, e.g., FIG. 32 and relateddescription) (for purposes of this discussion such constituenthardware/software components are referred to as an “auto-compositionengine”), but with the user interface adapted for the PBX-type ofenvironment. In one such exemplary embodiment, one or moreauto-composition engines are provided, which serve to provide theon-hold music to one or more callers on hold. In one example, a singleauto-composition engine is provided, and the first caller on hold mayinitially be presented with auto-composed music of a particular style asdetermined by the auto-composition engine (or processor controlling theexemplary system) (this may also be a default on hold music styleselected by a configuration parameter of the exemplary system).Preferably, via an audio prompt provided by the resources of theexemplary system, the caller on hold is provided with audio informationindicating that the caller on hold may change the style of on-hold musicbeing provided (such audio prompt generation is considered conventionalin the context of such exemplary systems and will not be described ingreater detail herein). Preferably, the user may indicate such desire bypressing a predetermined digit (which preferably is identified in theaudio prompt) on the telephone key pad, which may be detected by theresources of the exemplary system (such digit detection capability isconsidered conventional in the context of such exemplary systems andwill not be described in greater detail herein), and thereafter may beprovided with preferably a plurality of music styles from which toselect the style of on-hold music (such as with audio prompts providingavailable styles of music followed by one or more digits to be enteredto select the desired style of music). Thereafter, the user may depressthe appropriate digit(s) on the telephone keypad, which are detected bythe resources of the exemplary system, which preferably decodes thedigits and sends control information to one of the auto-compositionengines, in response to which the auto-composition engine thereafterbegins to auto-compose music of the selected style, which is directed tothe caller on hold as on hold music.

[0314] What is important is that, in accordance with such embodiments,one or more auto-composition engines are adapted for the exemplarysystem, with the command/control interface of the auto-compositionengine being changes from buttons and the like to commands from theresources of the exemplary system (which are generated in response tocalls being placed on hold, digit detection and the like). In accordancewith variations of such embodiments, a plurality of auto-compositionengines are provided, and the resources of the system selectivelyprovide on-hold music to on hold callers of a style selected by thecaller on hold (such as described above). In one variation, there maypotentially be more callers on hold than there are auto-compositionengines; in such embodiments, the callers on hold are selectivelycoupled to one of the output audio streams of the auto-compositionengines provided that there is at least one auto-composition engine thatis not being utilized. If a caller is place on hold at a time when allof the auto-composition engines are being utilized, the caller placed onhold is either coupled to one of the audio streams being output by oneof the auto-composition engines (without being given a choice), oralternatively is provided with an audio prompt informing the user of thestyles of on-hold music that are currently being offered by theauto-composition engines (in response thereto, this caller on hold mayselect one of the styles being offered by depressed one or more digitson the telephone keypad and be coupled to an audio stream that isproviding auto-composed music of the selected style).

[0315] Other variations of such embodiments include: (1) the resourcesof the exemplary system detect, such as via caller ID information orincoming trunk group of the incoming call, information regarding thecalling party (such as geographic location), and thereafter directs thatthe on hold music for the particular on hold be a predetermined stylecorresponding to the caller ID information or trunk group information,etc.; (2) the resources of the exemplary system selectively determinesthe style of the on-hold music based on the identity of the called party(particular called parties may, for example, set a configurationparameter that directs that their on hold music be of a particularstyle); (3) the resources of the exemplary system may selectivelydetermine the style of on-hold music by season of the year, time of dayor week, etc.; (4) the exemplary system includes an auto-compositionengine for each of the styles being offered, thereby ensuring that allcallers on-hold can select one of the styles that are offered; (5)default or initial music styles (such as determined by the resources ofthe exemplary system or called party, etc., as described above) arefollowed by audio prompts that enable the caller on hold to change themusic style; and (6) the resources of the exemplary system furtherprovide audio prompts that enable a user to select particular musicstyles and also parameters that may be changed for the music beingauto-composed in the particular music style (in essence, audio promptgeneration and digit detection is provided by the resources of theexemplary system to enable the caller on hold to alter parameters of themusic being auto-composed, such as described elsewhere herein.

[0316] Other examples of novel ways to generally integrate aspects ofthe present invention with other products include: video camera (e.g.,preferably to enable a user to easily create home movies with a royaltyfree, configurable soundtrack), conventional stereo equipment, exerciseequipment (speed/intensity/style programmable, preferably similar toworkout-intensity-programmable capabilities of the workout device, suchas a StairMaster series of hills), configurable audio accompaniment to acomputer screensaver program, and configurable audio accompaniment to aninformation kiosk system.

[0317] Aspects of the present invention can advantageously be employedin combination with audio watermarking techniques that can embed (and/ordetect) an audio ‘fingerprint’ on the musical output to facilitate mediacontent rights management, etc. The preferable incorporation of audiowatermarking techniques, such as those described by Verance or Digimarc(e.g., the audio watermarking concepts described by Digimarc in U.S.Pat. Nos. 6,289,108 and 6,122,392, incorporated herein by reference),can enable a user with the ability to monitor the subsequent usage oftheir generated music.

[0318] In another example, certain embodiments of the present inventioncan be incorporated as part of the software of video game (such as aPlayStation 2 video game) to provide music that preferably virtuallynever repeats, as well as different styles preferably selectable by theuser and/or selectable by the video game software depending on actionand/or plot development of the game itself.

[0319] Additionally, there are certain novel variations to the presentinvention that incorporate many advantages of the present invention togreat effect. For example, in the portable hardware device 35 in FIG.32, the incoming data on MIC input 51 (e.g., a vocal melody of the user)can pass through hardware codec 52 to MP 36, where it can be analyzed bythe MP 36 and processed/adjusted by DSP 42 (under control of MP 36) tosubtly ‘improve’ pitch and/or rhythm characteristics. This exampleillustrates a preferable arrangement that allows a user's vocal input tobe adjusted to conform to the key and/or rhythmic characteristics of theaccompanying music. Continuing this example, the pitch of a user's inputto MIC input 51 preferably can be analyzed by the portable hardwaredevice 35 and bumped up or down in pitch to more closely match a pitchthat fits the current key and/or mode of the music. Such a variationprovides a novice user with a easy way to generate songs that aremusically compelling, yet preferably are also noticeably derivative ofthe user's input (e.g., vocal). In another example variation, thecircuitry mentioned here preferably can be available to analyze theuser's input (e.g., vocal) and infer some type of timing and/or melodyinformation, which information preferably can then be used in theinteractive music autogeneration to help define the pitch values and/orthe rhythmic data comprised in the RP. This example presents a way for auser to demonstrably interact with, and influence, the musical output,all the while without needing to fully understand the complexities ofmusical composition.

[0320] Additionally, many aspects of the present invention are useful toenable a new concept in Firmware upgrades. Using aspects of the presentinvention, firmware updates can be made available to users, completewith embedded advertising, which provides the Firmwaremanufactures/distributors with a revenue source other than the user.This concept preferably involves the distribution of firmware (or othersoftware-based programs such as sound bank data) upgrades that containembedded advertising images (and/or sounds). Such images/soundspreferably can temporarily appear during the operation of the musicproduct, and can fund the development of customized firmware for usersto preferably freely download.

[0321] As will be understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art ofportable electronic music design, the examples discussed here arerepresentative of the full spirit and scope of the present invention.Additional variations, some of which are described here, incorporatemany aspects of the present invention.

[0322] Although the invention has been described in conjunction withspecific preferred and other embodiments, it is evident that manysubstitutions, alternatives and variations will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art in light of the foregoing description. Accordingly,the invention is intended to embrace all of the alternatives andvariations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.For example, it should be understood that, in accordance with thevarious alternative embodiments described herein, various systems, anduses and methods based on such systems, may be obtained. The variousrefinements and alternative and additional features also described maybe combined to provide additional advantageous combinations and the likein accordance with the present invention. Also as will be understood bythose skilled in the art based on the foregoing description, variousaspects of the preferred embodiments may be used in varioussubcombinations to achieve at least certain of the benefits andattributes described herein, and such subcombinations also are withinthe scope of the present invention. All such refinements, enhancementsand further uses of the present invention are within the scope of thepresent invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for generating a song comprising the steps of: providing a song data structure, wherein musical rules are applied to musical data in accordance with the song data structure to generate music output for the song; receiving user input for one or more musical components, wherein musical data in accordance with the song data structure corresponding to the musical components are modified in accordance with the user input; applying musical rules to the modified musical data, wherein the music output for the song is modified in accordance with the modified musical data; wherein as a first step the user is provided with musical data in accordance with the song data structure for a complete song, wherein in response to the user input a modified song is created based on user modifications to the complete song.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input modifies music output corresponding to one or a plurality of instruments, audio samples or microphone input.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the modified song is stored for subsequent playback and/or played in real time as a live performance.
 4. A method for generating a song of a particular musical style comprising the steps of: providing a song data structure, wherein musical rules are applied to musical data in accordance with the song data structure to generate music output for the song; defining a plurality of levels of predetermined musical styles, wherein values of parameters in accordance with the song data structure are limited to predetermined ranges corresponding to the particular musical style and the particular level of musical style; receiving user input for selecting a particular musical style at a particular level of musical style; receiving user input for one or more musical components, wherein musical data in accordance with the song data structure corresponding to the musical components are modified in accordance with the user input, wherein the user input modifies the values of parameters within the predetermined ranges; applying musical rules to the modified musical data, wherein the music output for the song is modified in accordance with the modified musical data; wherein the predetermined ranges for a particular musical style at a first level of musical style provide a greater range for modifying the musical data as compared to the particular musical style at a second level of musical style, wherein in response to the user input a modified song is created based on user modifications to the song.
 5. A method for generating a song comprising the steps of: providing a song data structure, wherein musical rules are applied to musical data in accordance with the song data structure to generate music output for the song; displaying a visual representation for a plurality of musical components, wherein the visual representation comprises a plurality of lanes, wherein each lane corresponds to one of the musical components; receiving user input for one or more musical components, wherein musical data in accordance with the song data structure corresponding to the musical components are modified in accordance with the user input, wherein the user input is received by the user entering levels of the visual representation beneath the lanes, wherein to modify musical data corresponding to a particular musical component the user selects the lane corresponding to the particular musical component, enters a level of the visual representation beneath the particular lane and provides user input to modify the musical data corresponding to the particular musical component; applying musical rules to the modified musical data, wherein the music output for the song is modified in accordance with the modified musical data; wherein in response to the user input a modified song is created based on user modifications to the song.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein displayed graphics corresponding to the visual representation are customizable by the user.
 7. The method of claim 5, wherein modifications to musical data corresponding to a particular musical component is accompanied by a change in a visual effect corresponding to the modifications to the musical data.
 8. A method for generating a song comprising the steps of: providing a song data structure, wherein musical rules are applied to musical data in accordance with the song data structure to generate music output for the song; receiving user input for one or more musical components, wherein musical data in accordance with the song data structure corresponding to the musical components are modified in accordance with the user input; applying musical rules to the modified musical data, wherein the music output for the song is modified in accordance with the modified musical data; wherein in response to the user input a modified song is created based on user modifications to the song, wherein the musical rules are applied in accordance with pseudo random number generation or randomness associated with one or more particular user inputs.
 9. A method for generating a song comprising the steps of: providing a song data structure, wherein musical rules are applied to musical data in accordance with the song data structure to generate music output for the song; receiving user input for one or more musical components, wherein musical data in accordance with the song data structure corresponding to the musical components are modified in accordance with the user input; applying musical rules to the modified musical data, wherein the music output for the song is modified in accordance with the modified musical data; wherein in response to the user input a modified song is created based on user modifications to the song, wherein a modified MIDI representation of music is employed in which musical rule information is embedded in MIDI pitch data. 